


Toward the Cosmos

by ExcelsiorUnderoos



Series: The Cosmos [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, First time posting something I've written, Gamora is a badass, Gen, Groot is a Good Bro, Healthy Amount of Cursing, OC is kinda a cliche street rat but only kinda, OC is touch-starved and doesn't realize it, OC might be LGBTQ+, Quill and Rocket are smartasses, Strangers to teammates to family trope that everyone loves, Who's to say?, i don't know what else to put
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:11:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExcelsiorUnderoos/pseuds/ExcelsiorUnderoos
Summary: Lennux has never really been a people person. Sure she can talk and hold a conversation with someone, but that’s about it. Anything past that is venturing towards getting to know someone and she just doesn’t have the level of interest necessary for “knowing knowing” other people. Why? Because other people have issues, and she's already got enough of her own issues to deal with. She doesn't need to worry about theirs. As a result, she tends to avoid people best she can - which is pretty easy to do when you're a homeless kid constantly moving around in a galaxy as big as hers. So, imagine her discomfort when a thief, two thugs, an assassin, and a maniac become her newest bunkmates on a mission to stop a homicidal maniac hell-bent on bringing the galaxy to its knees. She's pretty sure that they're going to kill each other before they get the chance, though.





	1. The Experimentation of Subject 9-T72 by The Mad Scientist Rukâi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own anyone or anything that you might recognize as part of the Marvel/MCU universe(s). I only own Lennux and any other original characters and ideas.

Location: Prosilicus, Jyn System, Sect. 3, Genetics Division, N61H 231157364-018437

Subject: Subject 9-T72

Date: Near End of Prosilicus' 6400th Revolution around Sun #301

Experiment: Bioelectric Trials #3

 _Incredible_ , he thought to himself. _Purely remarkable_.

The older man stared at the glass capsule in front of him with a look of curious wonder on his face. He had been standing in the same spot for the last twenty minutes since his arrival, assessing and looking over the capsule's contents. Inside the chamber was a child, but this child was different...she was a hybrid. The result of forced breeding between a mutated Arcturan and an Axi-Tun; an unimaginable cross-breed between two species from opposite sides of the galaxy that never would have occurred any other way. For all intents and purposes, this child should not exist, yet there she was.

When the female had given birth to the child and her late twin brother, their unique genetic coding and genealogy had been something of great interest to everyone at the compound, but none were as interested at the head geneticist himself. Rukâi had quickly turned the twins into his new obsession for the next few solar cycles. His intense interest incited observations, tests, samples, and everything of the sort to be performed on the children the moment they were born, and even a few before then.

That was in the past, though — when the boy was still alive. Rukâi's eyes darkened a bit in frustration at the reminder that his first attempt of this experiment, involving the boy, had been a failure. However, he didn’t dwell on it for long, focusing back on the girl a few yards away from him; he watched her body pulse the energy. It happened every few moments, coinciding with a flicker of the lights around the room and a slight rise in her heart rate before it went back down. He smiled satisfactorily at the surge.

 _She’s strong_.

The salt and pepper haired man gave a quick sweep around the room, taking note of the various creatures moving around him. Each different from the last, and all with jobs and places to be: his employees. "Give me heart rate levels." The man spoke to no one in particular but knew someone would answer him.

A rather meek looking creature in a lab coat that sat behind a computer across the room decided to speak up. "Heart rate is holding steady, sir. As is brain activity."

The man nodded in response. "How was she this morning? Any more... issues?"

No one spoke.

A few moments passed before a gruff voice piped up from near the doorway behind the scientist. "There was another energy surge earlier in the day. It took a few minutes to get back online, Dr. Rukâi," he said with no small amount of irritation, although he did well at covering his discomfort. The creature had a gun braced in his arms and a stoic look on his face as he stared straight ahead at the capsule; the only sign of his disgust was the slight curl of his upper lip as he gazed upon the child. The girl had been the cause of three energy surges since she had gone under three days prior. He had been on guard detail every time and was getting rather fed up with it.

However, the same couldn't be said for Dr. Rukâi, the Head Geneticist, who quietly hummed with impressment at the news. He had been immensely pleased when he'd seen the first surge, bragging of the strength the child possessed even while unconscious. The man was rather engrossed with the hybrid, soon to be tribrid, and her newly developing abilities; he silently willed the final stage to finish so that he could finally see. See if his experiment was a success and see if he was right.

Rukâi had devoted the last four years of his life to perfecting this experiment, making adjustments, and going through various candidates to achieve his goal. The subject before 9-T72 — her brother, 9-T71 — had been the closest the scientist had ever gotten, but the boy had merely been another failure, same as the others. His body just wasn’t strong enough to make the necessary changes, but not this time. Rukâi couldn’t afford another failure; he needed this to work. He needed perfection, and he was going to get it, even if it took him a hundred more tries.

It wouldn’t.

————————————

Only a few hours had passed when it happened.

He had been looking over one of the monitors from over a worker’s shoulder when he heard it. The screen dedicated to monitoring the girl's heart rate began to ring out with sharp, shrill cries in time with rapid spikes and drops on the screen. At the same time, the lights throughout the room began to flicker while the child started to jerk back and forth on the table. Everyone in the room paused, before jumping into action when the girl started to seize.

The head geneticist moved about the room, weaving between holograms and computers, yelling out orders to those around him. He did all of this while keeping his eyes glued to the child. The bioluminescent marks outlining her nervous system ignited like fire while streaks of gold began to spiderweb out underneath her skin.

Men at desks began yelling out various readings coming from the child while attempting to watch the scene unfold at the same time.

“Subject’s internal temperature has reached 120Jolts!" shouted a voice to the scientist’s left.

“Her heart rate is rapidly increasing, sir!" came another.

“Brain activity is beginning to spike!” said another. Multiple people began speaking at once, attempting to make their voices heard over the sounds of the machines and the others moving around the room.

Then, it stopped. The girl laid eerily still on the table, not even the slight rise and fall of her chest that should signal a breath. The lights returned to full brightness, and the heart rate monitor changed its torrent of shrieks into one shrill sound that drug out into the silence of the room. The scientists at their seats sent each other crestfallen glances from across their screens. The unspoken word — failure — weighed heavy on all of them.

Wary glances were cast in Rukâi's direction, but no one dared to say what they all thought. It took a minute of silence before someone got the nerve to speak up. "Sir...perhaps we should remove the girl-"

"Wait," Rukâi hissed out, never moving his gaze away from the capsule. The geneticist knew what they would say, but he didn't want to hear it. Somewhere in his mind, he knew that wasn't it. He knew she hadn't just died. She couldn't have. And if she had, well...Rukâi began willing her to live with everything he had.

A few seconds passed. No one moved once again as they watched the child warily and expectantly. Rukâi felt his heart clench in fear as he stared at the capsule with bated breath. It has to work. It has to work. _Wake up. Wake up_ , he repeated in his head. The man barely registered the two guards behind him begin to approach slowly, their eyes trained on the unmoving body in the cage.

Then he heard that small beep of the heart monitor that filled him with a glimmer of hope. He waited for another moment and hoped it wasn’t a fluke. It beeped again. And then once more. Everyone in the room released a collective breath of relief when the monitor began to rest at a small, but still there, heartbeat.

Rukâi wiped his hands down his grey face, resting them rest there for a moment. Those beeps lifted an invisible weight off of the geneticist's shoulders.

 _She’s alive...She's alive_.

He stood still for a little while longer, reveling in his success while blocking out the cheers of those around him. He must’ve been like this for only a few moments when he saw the twitch. A claw-tipped finger twitched — just barely, but it did move.

Rukâi tensed in anticipation as he willed P72 to move once more.

She did — her head twitched to the side this time. This time everyone noticed it and ceased in their movements as they waited for her to do it again. She did. She did it again, and again, and again.

Both guards watched the child warily, eyes narrowed in apprehension as the guard on the left shifted with unease.

Rukâi felt his eyes go wide with disbelief as the child’s chest began to move up and down, filtering in deep lungfuls of air. The child continued to do so while slowly wiggling around.

“Initiate protocol 239 for Subject 9-T72,” Rukai spoke quietly to the Lumina creature on his left. The alien nodded and quickly typed in the access codes for the cage. A large, glass-paneled enclosure began to rise up from the floor, surrounding the table that the child was lying on.

The girl, whose eyes had begun to slowly peel open at the scraping sound of the cage as it rose, tilted her head to the side. Her vision was still blurry so she stared in confusion as the space around her seemed to shift slightly. She watched the top half of her capsule slide open and felt the metal restraints on her wrists, legs, neck, and waist retract, allowing her to move freely. Despite this, though, the girl laid still as she tried to catch up with her surroundings. Her ears were ringing, and her vision was still a bit fuzzy around the edges. After a few moments, she attempted to roll over onto her side but ended up rolling off the table and onto the floor instead.

The child grunted a bit at the impact, as well as the ringing that shot through her ears, but she laid still. She stayed that way for a moment or two, hoping that the shrill ringing would subside. Her brain pounded viciously against her skull while her muscles contracted violently beneath her skin.

After a few moments, the girl rolled herself onto her stomach before shakily trying to lift herself onto her hands and knees. Though as soon as she did this, the sting of bile rose up into her throat and spewed out onto the floor under her, staining the smooth white tile with a putrid smelling yellow and green liquid. She clenched her eyes shut as she continued to throw up. It wasn’t until she finished throwing up that she finally began to notice that something was wrong.

 _Something’s wrong. Something‘s wrong. Something. Is. Wrong_.

The young girl could feel something... humming over her skin. It was hot and cold all at once; it was prickly under her skin, but smooth as well; it made her feel light as air and heavy as rocks all at once; it was so incredibly uncomfortable she could barely think of anything else.

With a shuddering breath, the girl shifted her weight back onto her legs and brought her gaze up toward the glass wall enclosing the cell. She felt the air rush from her lungs at what she saw.

There were light yellow dots spattered all along her reddish-orange skin. She gave a glance down at her arms and saw the dots running along her arms and hands, following some invisible line along her bones to the end of her fingertips. She took note of all that she could see; there were some speckling her forehead in the center before flowing down in two lines, converging into one line of dots on the bridge of her nose and breaking into a small spatter at the tip; and there were some bunched under her eyes down to the bottoms of her cheekbones. Four dots speckled her chin in a sort of square shape with the two at the top wider out than the ones below; and, then there were two lines of dots zig-zagging down either side of her neck as well as a line going down each shoulder and arm.

_What did they...?_

The girl blinked a few times, trying to make sure that she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. Upon closer inspection, she found that even her eyes had changed.

Whereas they were once a regular deep-set brown, they were now a mixture of various unnatural shades peering eerily out through her thick dark coils of hair. Those eyes didn’t belong to her, and neither did the yellow dots speckling her tail and the rest of her body. The razor-sharp tip of her tail glinted dangerously under the bright white lights of the containment cell, and the specks running along the thin appendage only added to its threatening appearance.

The girl was so caught up in assessing her appearance that she barely registered the people around her. At least not until someone moved.

Rukâi, still high on his success, had approached the cage without caution.

As he made his way closer, the girl's wide-eyed gaze locked onto him and didn’t let up. Instead, her innocent confusion gave way to a look of tense fear and an underlying cold fury. Of course, the scientist didn't notice, seeing as he was too blinded by awe to recognize her disdain.

 _Him. It’s him. He did it. He did this. It’s his fault,_ the girl thought to herself.

"Sir, I don't think it is very wise for you to-"

"Quiet!" Rukâi hissed at the man.

The girl had begun creeping toward the edge of the cage and had sunk into a somewhat defensive crouch during the exchange, all while keeping her eyes glued onto Rukâi. 9-T72's ears flicked a bit when the geneticist began speaking to her, his words registering as clear as day. However, the young creature’s attention was no longer on the geneticist, but rather the guards behind him that had begun to inch forward as he did.

"Doctor, perhaps you should take a step back," the goblin-looking guard suggested. He kept his gun pointed to the ground, but with his hands braced around it, ready to be raised at a moment's notice. He could feel the child’s gaze on him and regretted to say that her piercing gaze made him feel uncomfortable.

"Nonsense, Griarly, I am perfectly fine. You know as well as I that she can't get out unless we let her out," Rukâi spoke confidently.

The guard, Griarly, wasn't convinced. He didn't trust the geneticist, and he didn't trust his...experiment even more so. While he was relieved that the child was stuck inside of the containment unit, he knew that she wouldn’t be there forever. And when she got out, he would have to worry about more than her glare. Even now the glass did nothing to hide the underlying predatory look in the child's eyes — the look that caused a wave of shivers to travel up his spine. He always did get uncomfortable watching her lay in that capsule, and now that she was able to look back at him his discomfort was even worse. However, he shook it off as best as he could and focused on the geneticist.

Rukâi took a few more steps forward before coming to a stop directly in front of the cell; he crouched down, bringing himself to eye-level with the child. Rukâi couldn't see her face very clearly due to the mass of black ringlets covering her face and giving it a menacing appearance that looked wrong on someone of her age. However, this didn’t deter him in the slightest.

"Subject 9-T72," he spoke insistently.

9-T72 felt any semblance of fear dissipate the second she heard those words. Her eyes narrowed in anger as her body tended and her fingers flexed at her sides. She could feel a swift movement beneath her skin, running through her body in reaction to the man’s words. She didn’t notice the air around her beginning to thicken with energy though.

"Subject 9-T72, can you hear me?"

Her upper lip curled back while her ears flattened against her head. Her tail when rim-rod straight. Oh, she could hear him.

"Do you understand me?" Rukâi pushed. "Subject 9-T-"

The girl released a growl and scrunched her face up into a snarl. Her heart began to hammer against her ribcage, and the air around her began to spark. Her body tingled with pins and needles while her senses started dialing up of their own accord.

She could see the specks of dust lining the outside of her cage and the sweat dripping down the scale-skinned guard’s forehead. She could hear the energy currents humming within the wires lining the walls. She could practically smell unease and fear oozing out of everyone in the room from all but one person: Rukai. He watched her with a look of complete wonder in his eyes; 9-T72 was itching to wipe it off of his face.

"Sir, subject's brain activity is spiking," said a voice from off to the side.

Rukâi paid no mind to this as he continued his probing. "9-T72, do you understand me?” he pushed. “I need you to acknowledge if you can understand me or not.” The response he got was a deep growl and a further enraged expression. The lights inside the cage began to flicker more rapidly than before.

Another warning came from one of the workers, as a monitor began to beep rapidly. "Heart rate is beginning to elevate. Energy levels in the unit are beginning to spike. Sir, I think it would be best for you to stop."

“Did I ask what you thought was best? No, i didn't." The geneticist replied offhandedly to the woman, effectively shutting down any arguments she had for him. His focus was still on the girl, who had begun to stumble from her crouched position and now stood at her short, yet still imposing height — for a child —, eyes wild and full of a primal rage that seemed out of place on her small face.

The yellow speckles on her skin had begun to glow dimly under the harsh bright lights of the containment unit. Rukâi figured it was a sign of her abilities activating. The thought brought him a sense of pride at her strength; she had only emerged from her comatose state a few minutes before, and already she was showing an aptitude for wielding her abilities. Everyone else in the room was put off by the sight of the glowing dots. Oh yes, he was quite proud, but he was the only one.

The girl’s gaze flickered across everyone in the room. She stared threateningly at the people watching her with fearful, untrusting looks in their eyes. A sound like a mix between a roar and a shriek burst from her throat as she raised her clawed hand above her head and brought it down against the glass once.

No effect.

Rukâi let a small, amused breath escape when he saw this. His confidence began to rise again. He had prepared for this type of reaction —

Another punch.

The glass splintered. All amusement melted away as the scientist straightened up, his eyes narrowed in shock and awe.

Another punch. More cracks spiderwebbed across the glass. Some of the workers at their desks sent worried and nervous glances toward Rukâi, wondering what he wanted them to do.

Keeping his eyes locked onto the enraged creature in front of him, the scientist said, "Sedate her. Now." No sooner than he gave the order did a hiss rang throughout the cell, causing the child to pause in her attack when she heard it. She tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling where she saw a thick white vapor beginning to pour into the cage, filling up the area. She stumbled back a few steps and growled in anger as the gas started to invade her lungs and burn at her eyes.

After a few moments, Rukâi could no longer see the subject because the gas wholly filled the containment unit. "Give me vitals," the man commanded.

"The energy levels inside the cage are decreasing, but heart-rate and brain activity are still pretty high... Sir, I don't think she's-"

Before the man could finish his sentence, the very conscious child hurled herself through the glass and into Rukâi. Alarm sirens began to blare while the child glared hatefully down at the geneticist, who stared up at her in a mixture of fear and wonder. The child bared her teeth at the man, revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth that glinted dangerously in the light. Raising a clawed hand in the air, 9-T72 went to bring it down across the man’s throat but fell backward when something hit her in the chest.

The girl scrambled back while reaching up to the grab at the object that protruded from her chest. She narrowed her eyes at the tranquilizer dart in her hand and crushed the metal before throwing it off to the side and snarling at the guard who shot it: Griarly. The child ignored the guard’s commands to "stand down" and "stay on the ground" as she rose to her feet. She stared down both guards, taking note of the weapons they had aimed at her. She also noticed the creatures in lab coats running out the door behind them, but they were of little concern at the moment. She needed to deal with the guard’s before she even thought about dealing with anything else.

With a bone-shaking roar, she sprang into action, jumping over Rukâi and in front of the first guard. With a strength she shouldn’t have possessed, 9-T72 ripped the weapon from the creature’s hands and used it to deliver a harsh blow to his head, caving in his skull. She felt some of his blood spatter across her face but paid no mind to it — she was too caught up in the moment to think about it.

The child felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and ducked from what would have been a disorienting blow to the back of her head. The girl dropped to the floor and scrambled between the man’s legs. She rolled over and sent a solid kick to the back of his knees, bringing him to the ground immediately. She moved forward onto her feet, jumped up, and tackled him the rest of the way down. The girl scrambled to keep her grip on the man and wrapped her arms around his throat in an attempt to choke him out. She needed him out of her way if she was going to get Rukâi.

However, it seemed that Griarly was just as determined to get her out of the way because he quickly stood to his feet and threw himself backward in an attempt to crush the experiment between the jagged wall and himself. The girl went wide-eyed when she the rocky points of the wall jabbed into the skin of her back. Cracks formed along the wall where she hit it. 9-T72 clenched her eyes shut and screwed up her face in pain.

Griarly took a step forward and shoved back again, but the girl held strong. When he went to crush her against the wall again, the child pulled her feet up and stuck them out behind herself to slow the impact before kicking off. Both she and Griarly fell to the ground with a harsh thud.

The girl then released her hold on his neck and grabbed both sides of his head before banging it against the floor. She did so repeatedly until the man was no longer moving and his skull was a disfigured mess. Rather than sit for a moment and take a breath, T72 leaped back into action when the sound of metal grating against rock reached her ears. The door leading out of the room was beginning to close.

Rukâi was standing at the control panel outside of the room, typing in some code while watching her with a wide-eyed and resolute expression on his face.

_He wants to trap you. Don't let him. Get out. Go. Move!_

The child stood to her feet and took off in a dead sprint. She dropped to her stomach and rolled under the door just before it closed. As she slid over the floor, her claws extended further than before and dragged against the ground to slow her down before she crashed into the wall. She stared Rukâi down the entire time. Subject 9-T72 then stood to her feet and began to approach the geneticist — she was intent on beating him until he was nothing but a swollen mass of flesh — when she got struck with the same chilly feeling as before. She pressed herself against the wall to her left and watched a thick metal rod (she could hear liquid sloshing around inside of it) shoot past her head and embed itself into the metal door at the other end of the hallway.

The girl turned her back to Rukâi and fell into a defensive crouch while taking in the multiple guards standing in front of her, all with their weapons aimed at various points on her body. The child’s nervousness became more evident as she inched back toward the door. Her eyes flicked frantically around the hallway, between each guard, trying to find some way passed them. She was trapped. The experiment knew she couldn’t get through the door behind her even if she tried — it was too thick and she didn’t have the code to open it. So instead, the girl set her sights on the clear hallway behind the guards. If she wanted out, she would have to get to that hallway.

_Behind them. Get behind them! Go!_

Before she could think to stop herself, she placed one foot behind her, steeled her nerves, bared her teeth, and shot forward into a sprint. The guards began yelling out orders for her to stop, but she didn’t listen. Two guards fired off a shot. Right before it could hit her, the girl dropped to the floor, slid between the first guard’s legs and popped up behind him. She braced a foot in front of her before ramming her shoulder into the stomach of the creature. With a grunt, both she and the first guard fell to the ground. Another guard went to grab her around her waist and pull her up, but she threw her head back against his nose and felt a small sense of satisfaction when the bone shattered under the force.

Another guard went to shoot at her, but the girl sloppily kicked out and down, breaking the disoriented guard’s hold on her waist and dropping out of the way in time to shield herself from the onslaught of darts coming from the guards in front of her. She spun around the man and pushed the guard into the remaining three; two jumped out of the way, but the other wasn’t fast enough and went to the ground as the guard flew into its legs.

Using this as a distraction, the child leaped over the remaining guards. Mid-leap, though, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. At the same time, the scent of blood, sweat, and anger invaded her nose.

_Oh no._

Before she could react, a hand wound itself into her hair and yanked hard. The girl felt light as a feather for a moment but tensed up her entire body for the impact. T72 crashed onto the floor with enough force that the concrete cracked. All the breath in her lungs rushed out when she smacked against the floor; she immediately curled in on herself, as her right shoulder began to throb.

The guard didn’t let up, though. With a growl, it wrapped its thick, sweaty hand around Subject 9-T72’s throat and lifted her from the floor. The child went wide-eyed and frantic, and she struggled for breath before being slammed against the wall. She clawed at the hand that was clasped around her throat in an attempt to get the creature to let go.

He just sneered at her and squeezed harder. His claws dug deeper into her skin, causing dark red lines of blood to flow freely down her neck.

The child continued to frantically paw at the man’s hand while trying to blink away the black dots appearing in her vision, but nothing worked. Her legs kicked out at the man, but he only grunted and squeezed her neck tighter.

_Let go. Let go. Let go! Make him let go!_

The child forced her hand out, rolling it around the wall, searching for something, anything to grab onto and knock the guard over the head with. Anything that could give her leverage at that point would do.

When her hand began inching upwards, she felt it. She could feel it, wherever it was, rolling over her skin, forcing her attention onto it — calling out to her. The black dots started to cover her vision as she reached upwards. The girl swore that everything that happened next went in slow motion, but in reality, everything had probably only taken a few seconds.

 _Reach out and take it. All of it_.

“No! Put her down!” spoke a voice from the other end of the hallway. T72 could faintly hear the stomping of feet getting closer and closer. “Don’t let her touch —!“

 _ **Take. It.**_.

The cold metal hit her palm, and everything burst into light.

————————————

Rukâi watched in awe as the girl made contact with the electrical current above her. The dots along her arms began to light up as the energy traveled rapidly through her body. A warm orangish-golden hue overtook her eyes and she lit up like a supernova. The lights in the ceiling all began to short out and explode as she absorbed the energy currents.

The guard roared in pain and dropped the child. He clutched his hand and watched the flesh sizzle and fall off.

Her arms curled around her stomach as if she were trying to smother the pain she was feeling. He watched the energy pool under her skin before it bubbled to the surface. He dropped to the floor and covered himself with a dead guard’s body as all of the energy in 9-T72 rushed out of her and through the hallway.

Rukâi peered out from under the guard and watched on in fascination as a wave of golden-orange energy forced its way out of his experiment’s body, cracking and shaking the walls of the hallway. The force of the explosion threw him down the hall and into the metal door with a loud thud, pinning him between the guard and the door. The geneticist's breathing was frantic and shallow as he tried to ignore how every hair on his body stood on end. He could feel the sweat running down his forehead from the intensity of the blast. It was over within a couple of seconds.

The child stumbled to the side a few steps and leaned against the wall. She was drained from her unintentional display of power, and it showed. Rukai would expect nothing else considering she had just demolished a hallway in one go.

The door behind Rukâi slid open, and he looked up just in time to see the tip of a rifle enter his field of view. He watched a green-plumed dart shot out of the weapons and embedded itself into the experiment’s back.

P72 turned to look over her shoulder at the dart sticking out of her back, and then turned her gaze onto the armed creatures standing in the doorway; confusion lit her features. Rukâi didn’t know whether it was confusion at what she had just done, at the guards, or at the dart sticking out of her shoulder. He was sure it was a mixture of both. The subject's eyes widened fearfully; she sluggishly took a step back, but two more darts landed in her chest, effectively stopping her. Her eyes fluttered a bit before she stumbled to the ground.

The guard standing behind him stepped over his body and slowly approached the experiment. He had his weapon aimed at the girl’s unmoving body, while two other guards followed closely behind him. 

"Sir?" spoke another voice. Rukâi glanced up to see that a guard was offering him a hand. He gratefully accepted and was pulled to his feet, dusting himself off and straightening his clothes before clearing his throat. “Sir? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” came his clipped reply. With a look of caution in his grey eyes, the man took a few steps towards the Subject and the guards. Two of them had cuffed the child and flanked her on both sides, holding her up between them.

“Doctor,” spoke the first guard. He was looking to Rukâi, who stared at the feral child with a look of astonishment and slight impressment on his face. "Where do you want us to-?"

"Administer another sedative and place her in observation cell 6B," the geneticist said. He watched as the girl was injected once more, filling her up with enough tranquilizer to knock out a full grown Kree warrior; slowly, her moving began to wane as the drugs took effect. Her eyelids dropped close and her body sagged with unconsciousness as the guards began to drag her down and out of the hallway. 

It wasn’t until the four guards turned the corner and he was left alone that Rukâi took his time to survey the damage around him. The walls were cracked and split, chunks of concrete and rock littered the floor, mixed in with the shattered glass of the lights above them. Smoke rose off of the walls and the ground, wafting the smell of burnt flesh throughout the hall.

The guard that had been holding T72 laid on the ground, motionless, as faint trails of smoke rose from his chest.

A slight look of awe — one of both impressment and fear — settled on Rukâi's face as his creation's roars of anger echoed in his head. He had done it. He succeeded. His Subject was a success, and she was powerful. God, she was powerful.


	2. Star-Gazing While Contemplating the Universe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything that you may recognize from Marvel/MCU. I only own Lennux and any other original characters and ideas. Anyways, here's chapter two. Enjoy

Location: Rooftop on Xandar, M31V J00442326 - 412708

Date: Middle of Xandar's 4014th Revolution around Suns 752, 753, and 754

Lennux didn't try to pass herself off as some genius; she was never really good with numbers. However, that didn't mean that she was an idiot. For instance, an idiot (or anyone under the age of five) wouldn't know that the Skulls are just a rip-off of the Badoon. An idiot wouldn't know that the Kree and Nova Corps have more beef than the Kyln has prisoners. An idiot also wouldn't know that the Nova Corps, AKA the resident Buzzkills in Blue -made it their life's mission to stop any and everyone from living their lives. And sometimes it felt like they were purposefully trying to kick her down at every chance they got. Now, she completely understands why they do what they do. She saw them as agents of order, trying to wipe out chaos and pain and suffering within the galaxy to make it a better place. It was a brave and noble effort, one she was sure she could never handle. What the Novans have always failed to realize, though, was that there would always be trouble because that was how the universe worked according to the teachers on Sakaar. There would always be pain and suffering, no matter what, right? If there weren’t then no one would hurt anymore, and that just was not how the universe was designed to function, right? At least, that was how Lennux saw it. 

Then again, being at the center of multiple felonies — whether those felonies were entirely her fault or not didn't seem to matter — at the raw age of fourteen did tend to place one on the Corp's radar.

Things like that were the reason why Lennux wasn't necessarily excited about being on their planet. She was sure they wouldn't like her being there either — that was if they ever found out.

_They won’t._

Of course, they wouldn't need to worry about her if they hadn't stormed the laboratory all those years ago, at least that was Lennux's opinion. And, okay, granted she'd still be locked up if they hadn't, but that wasn't the point. The point was that if anyone looked close enough, using various reasonings and logic that proved Lennux right six times out of ten, the Corps was the reason she had been able to cause so much — it wasn't even that much — trouble in the first place. Honestly, the Corps brought all those miscellaneous creature-sized headaches upon themselves, trying to be the heroes and self-proclaimed peacemakers of the galaxy.

_Give me a fucking break_

Of course, life had not been great in the Labs, but life wasn't great anywhere, not really. (And Lennux could honestly say she had been around enough to know that was true, with places like Xandar being obvious exceptions). By any sane person’s standards, life on Prosilicus was worse than bad; the girl knew this. She also knew that given her particular situation, things could have been much worse. While other experiments would fight tooth and nail for freedom, for relief, for whatever it was they fought about, Lennux stood to the side and watched, tight-lipped, as they were beaten down and forced into submission. There was not much else that she could do unless she felt like getting beat down too, so she had resigned herself to being compliant from an early age. Compliance was vital, and no matter how horrible and degrading it was, that was just how things were. If the other subjects could not understand that, then it was their problem.

To Lennux, the Nova Corps was similar to those combative subjects in that they could never accept things as they were. The Novans could not understand that there would always be horrible, sick, and low-down people the same way the Subjects could not accept that on Prosilicus, compliance equaled survival. Nothing will ever change that. You either get with the program, or you get fucked.

The Novans chose to get fucked.

For some time after her escape, Lennux thought the Novans had to know that the experiments wouldn't be compliant, especially not with the prospect of freedom so close. After a while, though, she realized that when they chose to go in and liberate the experiments, they must have underestimated how badly the creatures would want out. Compliance and obedience had been drilled into Lennux at that point only for survival, but when another way of life presented itself, she, like everyone else, would take it. That was the natural thing to do after being held captive for her entire life, so Lennux saw her actions as entirely logical. The Novans had no excuse to complain just because they decided to stick their noses where they didn't belong and got them dirty.

Escape was a pretty natural, everyday occurrence for Lennux, whether it was being done in the figurative sense with a good book or in the physical sense with a horde of angry crew mates chasing after her. While the teen still used the former now and then, she had become much more familiar with the latter in the last few years. Especially considering the predicament she had found herself in, not once, but twice within the past eight hours.

The whole issue had honestly been one huge mistake — on her part. She was mature enough to admit it; there were some decisions made that she should have thought out more, some plans that were not fully developed, and a lot of winging things that should have remained un-wung. If she hadn’t wung those things, though, then she probably wouldn’t have fallen asleep, gotten caught, and then have to abandon ship early.

In the teen’s defense, though, she had been traveling nonstop for the last few days or so without any sleep longer than an hour, so she was definitely due some shut-eye. It was a natural occurrence, for her to fall asleep. She can’t be blamed for her body’s inability to live without sleep for longer than a week without any help.

_Honestly, it’s not really my fault that I got caught. It’s not like I said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna pop a squat and pass out until one of the crew members finds me and tries to kill me.’ No! That didn’t happen. I just happened to fall asleep, oh well. They had no reason to be down there in the first place, so technically, if they were doing their jobs instead of wandering around, then I never would've gotten caught._

The girl would not have been caught at all had she not stowed away on the ship in the first place, but she was not going to dwell on that.

Lennux was right, though. She had boarded the ship back on Moldur during its initial docking and had managed to worm her way past all of the crew members (how she did not know) and snuck her way into the back section of the engine room. The engines were all in optimal conditions because if they weren’t then that ship wouldn’t be able to hover five feet in the air without crashing. So, once they took off, the teen figured she was in the clear. Since she was in the clear, it would not hurt anyone if she just went ahead and pulled out some light reading material (read: a four hundred page manuscript she found a few years back). The girl was so involved in the book that she didn’t even realize she was getting tired until she blinked. When she opened her eyes, there was a Badoon that looked like he got whopped with the ugly stick as a child standing in front of her. The guy didn’t even give her a chance to plead her case before he tried to bash her in the face with a wrench. That, in turn, lead to a rather intense fight scene full of avoiding other crew members, knocking over some important equipment, practically destroying the interior of the ship, and a whole lot of cursing on the crews’ parts. Somehow she managed to get out of the ship and onto Xandar — AKA the one place she should _never visit_.

See, Lennux happens to have a complicated, one might even call flirtatious, relationship with the Corps. Sometimes they would go after her, and she’d play hard to get and run away. Sometimes they would go days without speaking to each other then one would show up out of the blue and start flirting all over again. The teen found that although it kept her life interesting, it was also rather inconvenient. She could do without the shouts of love and care (anger & annoyance) when Novan officers were in pursuit of her, or the longing (exasperated) glances (glares) the Novans gave her whenever she escaped capture. She could do without that baggage in her life.

Now, take her total lack of care for the Nova Corps coupled with a healthy level — it wasn’t — of self-confidence, and her current predicament wasn't one too hard to track. All she did was get some food. Without paying for it. After the store closed for the night...

Technically it was stealing, but she wasn’t supposed to get caught so it wouldn’t have mattered. Wrong. Because she _did_ get caught. Just not by the Nova Corps. There had been an obstacle, for lack of a better term, in her way. The obstacle she faced was the reason why she slumped on a rooftop with a dried, blood-crusted shoulder and only a somewhat full stomach.

See, when most people get robbed, they try to run and get help, you know, as any reasonable person should. But no, not this guy — not this two-hundred thirty-pound Xandarian with an affinity for baking. When he walked into his shop in the middle of the night to see Lennux sneaking a few treats from the counter, he had instantly whipped out a high-impulse blaster. Why he needed the gun, she didn't know. It's not like criminals drop in on Xandar whenever they feel like it, right?

After shooting her with the blaster and watching the energy shoot right back out in another direction without harming the girl, the Xandarian had thrown the weapon to the side and grabbed a knife. What did he do next? He stabbed her. Right in the shoulder. He gave a few fake-outs and then gave a clean jab right through the meaty part of her upper arm.

To say Lennux had reacted appropriately is more or less untrue. Unless the appropriate thing would have been to break the knife, throw the man through the shop window, and threaten to rip his throat out with her teeth if he ever tried some shit like that again; if so, then she did wonderfully.

Shortly after that, though, a few officers from the Nova Corps had shown up. After knocking the baker out, Lennux had jumped over the counter top and hid there for a moment, waiting to see if the officers would leave; they didn't. Instead, they pulled out a thermo-scanner and looked for her high heat signature because why not? They had begun approaching her spot behind the counter and Lennux, not too keen on spending the night in the Kiln, made the split-second decision to get out of there.

It wouldn't be too hard, she figured. Lennux snuck around before and generally, most of the time, she didn't get caught (this was only about 89%). The girl caught when she stowed away on board a Novan ship that one time, or when she followed Val home. She never got busted sneaking in and out of every bar, bakery, casino, etc. in the West-side of the galaxy — except that one time —, and not when she lifted that obsidian-opal off of...never mind, she did get caught that time. It was also how the Nova Corps hadn't been able to find her in the last however many years. Well, that and they didn't usually venture out to the outer rings of the galaxy where she spent most of her time, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyways, those skills always came in handy, and they never failed her. Not before, and certainly not on that night. She was going to escape, the guards were going to have two grandmothers of a headache, and she was going to chill out somewhere and chow down. Nice and easy.

And that was almost how it went. There was a little scuffle, Lennux whooped ass without having to actually whoop ass, grabbed some bread (because if she had gone through all of that and not gotten her food, then what was the point), and bolted before anyone else showed up.

Fast forward to a few minutes later and there she sat, looking every bit of the nomadic street rat she was, slumped against the concrete wall of a rooftop, with a bloody shoulder soaking the short sleeve of her second favorite shirt. But she got the food, so it was worth it.

(It wasn't, and she knew that. She was just too sleep-deprived, hungry, and in pain to admit that)

With a grunt, Lennux brought the sweet-smelling bread up to her mouth and took a large bite, letting a sigh pass through her nose as it went down her throat. Within a few moments, the child finished the bread and felt fuller than she had in two days. 

After finishing her bread, she glanced down at her wound and inspected it as best as she could before she went to sleep for the night. She gave a small snort at the sight of a scab covered in dried blood that ran down her arm. The red streaks almost looked natural against her dark, copper-red skin and would have blended in with her stripes if they were going sideways.

_Kind of like they belong there._

Her eyes widened a bit in surprise. _Whoa... Okay. That was depressing. Let's backtrack and erase, shall we?_

The girl blinked rapidly for a second as if trying to clear the previous thoughts from her mind, before sliding further into the shadows of the roof and reaching into the pocket of her overalls. The small folded up piece of cloth she pulled out was dirty and grimy, but she used it to wipe away the blood on her arm anyway. It's not like it would get infected. Maybe tomorrow she could try to find somewhere to get it cleaned. She pulled her leather jacket out of her backpack and rolled it up to use as a makeshift pillow for the night before lying on her back and staring up at the stars. Absentmindedly, she reached down and started twisting the thick metal cuffs on her forearms. She'd gazed upon the stars multiple times before, from various planets, yet the ones above Xandar always seemed more beautiful than others. Though it was no surprise since Xandar always seemed to have the most beautiful things. It was kind of bittersweet if she thought about it: the planet with the best view was full of the biggest jackasses.

_Go figure._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was chapter 2, it was pretty short but I needed a filler. Next chapter things are going to start picking up. Lennux is gonna meet the other guardians and I'm legit so excited about it. Please leave any comments, questions, concerns, or funny stories below.


	3. Chase Scene Meet and Greets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I don’t own anything belonging to Marvel/MCU. I only own Lennux and any other characters or things that you don’t recognize as part of the Marvel universe(s).

Location: Rooftop on Xandar, M31V J00442326 - 412708

Date: Middle of Xandar's 4014th Revolution around Suns 752, 753, and 754

Lennux could feel it. The day was going to be a shit-storm. She hadn't even moved yet, but she didn't have to know that the day was going to suck ass. Why? Well, to say it had already started as irksome should get the ball rolling.

Everything had been going fine. The teen had been sleeping soundly, no interruptions. The leather jacket she had snatched back on Archeopia snuggly wrapped around her. The morning sun had shifted to almost directly overhead, warming Lennux as she laid on the roof of some communications building — at least that's what she thought it was. She wasn't sure. The girl was tired enough that she could ignore the roar of Xandar's people going about their business, but what she couldn't overlook had been the sudden feeling of tingling pulses rolling through her body.

At first, they had been small shivers — a slight annoyance, kind of like an irritating bug that wouldn't leave her alone. She had shifted a few times trying to get rid of the feeling, but that had done nothing, so she opted to ignore it and sleep on, figuring it would go away eventually. Instead, the annoyance had only changed into a hard tug in her lower stomach that wasn't letting up any time soon. And as if that wasn't aggravating enough, then came the buzzing.

_So am I not gonna get any more sleep? Is that it? Is that the deal here?_

And so, Lennux laid on her back with her jacket covering her midsection in a sort of makeshift blanket. The once comfortable side bag under her neck had suddenly become lumpy and uncomfortable. Her eyes were blood-shot and wide open, her hands fisted at her sides, and her teeth ground together as if she was trying to break each one.

She was tired and not in the mood to be dealing with any of this nonsense today.

It — whatever 'it' was — seemed to have no respect for sleep or the role it played in making Lennux a fully functioning person. She wanted to know just what thought it could wake her up like that, so early in the day! It was only noon for titan's sake. As far as she was concerned, she still had three more hours at least — at least! But no!

**Hhzhzzzzhzzhhhzzhzhzzzz**

Her left eye twitched a bit when the noise buzzing inside her ears persisted, and a growl of irritation slipped out of her mouth. After a few more moments of the sound, she decided enough was enough, and that she was most likely going to go rip apart whatever it was. With a grunt, the girl stood to her feet and marched over to the edge of the roof. Her eyes narrowed, focusing in on everyone on the ground, searching for whatever was making the noise.

Lennux scanned over all the people for a few moments, before huffing in defeat. Standing around on the roof would not get her anywhere; she needed to search on the ground. The girl turned on her heel and made her way toward the side of the building facing the alley, grumbling all the way. "Freaking noise..." she said while grabbing her jacket and bag as she walked toward the ledge. "...not letting me sleep...," she tugged on her jacket before adjusting the bag onto her back, trying to ignore a headache that began to form behind her eyes. "...I'm gonna rip it apart," she grumbled under her breath.

With minimal effort, the girl hoisted herself over the wall of the platform and fell two stories into a narrow, white-walled alleyway. She crouched a few feet from the edge of the alley, away from the prying eyes of any passerby's as she watched them mill about.

She stayed like that for only a few moments before she picked up on the sound of footsteps lumbering towards her. Lenny prayed that they would move along and pay her no mind because she wasn't in the mood to interact with people so early in the morning.

"What the hell is that?”

Her eyes slid shut, clenched her jaw, and forced a loud sigh through her nose. With a shake of her head, the girl stood to her feet and brushed herself off. She had a healthy look of "I'm-tired-of-your-bullshit-and-I-haven't-even-met-you-yet" on her face.

 _I try to be a good person. I don't deserve this. I really don’t,_ she whined internally.

It didn't seem to matter where she went in the galaxy, people were always the same — pretentious, holier-than-thou douchebags that thought themselves better than she. Whether it be her appearance, her manners (or lack thereof according to some), or her abilities someone always had something to say. And on Xandar, the girl expected nothing less.

Her eyes closed as she let her head fall forward. A sigh escaped her lips. ”Come on man. Don't you think it's too early for you to be an assho…” She turned on her heel and geared up to deliver a quick insult, but her words died on her tongue.

The thing towered over her and blinked slowly at her with a warm look on its face. It stood at a tilted position with branches protruding out of it to serve as what Lennux assumed were its limbs, while a kind smile rested on its face.

_What in the actual fuck…?_

It was a humanoid tree — a smiling, humanoid-tree that took up the majority of the tribrid's field of vision. Now, Lennux had been traveling through the galaxy long enough to have thought she'd seen enough not to be shocked anymore. That was not the case, and she needed to rethink her approach to the entire exchange.

"Uh..." she trailed off, staring up at the creature with her eyebrows furrowed and jaw hanging open.

"Close your mouth, kid; your awe is wafting down here, and it doesn't smell like flowers.”

Her mouth snapped shut.

Wrenching her eyes away from the spectacle that was the walking tree, Lennux turned her gaze down toward where she heard the other voice. Her eyebrows raised further on her forehead at the sight of the creature standing next to the tree. It was covered in dark fur and decked out in a multi-pocketed vest; it stared her down with a mocking look on its face. The thing had a rather large gun strapped across its back that looked threatening enough, but when coupled with its dwarfed height Lennux was quick to pass the creature off as no more than a solid six on the threat scale.

_What the hell is that?_

"What are you staring at?" the creature, who's mocking face had shifted to one of annoyance, questioned gruffly.

The girl continued to stare at unabashedly as she said, “You.” She watched the creature narrow his eyes at her; she simply furrowed her eyebrows back. "...Whatever you are.”

"I could ask you the same thing you overgrown Krylorian knock-off," the animal snarked back. 

The girl rolled slightly rolled her eyes. _Ooh, like I haven’t heard that one before._

The girl turned her gaze back onto the rodent and regarded him quietly for another moment, taking note of a few things. On first glance, the animal seemed like he could be just a dwarfed Mephitisoid, but ruled that out because he lacked the cuffs of fur around his legs and the white-black pattern. Lennux could hear his heart rate fluctuating so rapidly that she wondered how he wasn’t dead yet. Then she caught his scent. He reeked of engine grease and week-old body odor, but that wasn't what caught her attention. No, it was that underlying bitter scent of surgical tools and metal.

The scent was almost sterile.

Every experiment she had ever happened across on Prosilicus had the same smell, no matter what they were covered in, whether or not they were dirty. She could always smell it on them, and she knew it would never go away. Lennux was pretty sure it would never go away from her, either. It was one of those smells that would give her a migraine if she focused on it for too long, though. Even though Rocket didn't look like an experiment, she knew it wouldn't be wise to go off what she saw alone. If her nose said he was an experiment then that was the truth; her nose had never been wrong before so she figured it wouldn't start now. 

Lennux was a bit shocked when she realized what that meant, though. The number of times she had crossed paths with other experiment was few and far between. The girl was curious as to why he was out and about rather than locked up in a cage somewhere. As he spoke to her, she began to compile a list, but she was racking off every single idea as being unlikely or just plain stupid.

_Superior strength, maybe? Could he have used it to break out and started hitchhiking—? No, that's not it. If it was, then why would he be traveling with the hulking pile of wood to his left? Maybe he can mess with psionic waves and be able to screw with his guards and get released? No, that's ridiculous. Oh! What if he's like Beta Ray B—?_

Lennux‘s thoughts came to a screeching halt when she got hit with another dizzy spell. Her face pulled into a pinched expression while she began to take shallow breaths in an attempt to force away the pins and needles feeling that rolled over her entire body; she clenched her teeth to keep from hissing. The girl tried ignoring the buzzing in her ears and the painful tug in her gut, but it was getting harder with each passing moment. It took a few moments for the noise to quiet down and the tingling to go away (the tugging was still there, though), but Lenny knew she didn't have too long before it came back. She took a deep breath before opening her eyes and focusing again on the two creatures in front of her. 

While the tree gave her a concerned glance, the rodent was much more cautious. "The hell's the matter with you, kid?" The furry creature had his arms crossed over his chest and a distrusting look in his eyes. Although, he must not have felt too put out as there was a slightly mocking tone to his voice when he said, "Have a few too many drinks last night?”

The teenager snorted and muttered, "Feels like it." She clenched her eyes shut as her stomach twisted again; she groaned in discomfort. "I think my body might be trying to kill me." She curled slightly into herself some more, now resembling an awkward S-shape. "Oh yeah. My body is trying to kill me." She stood like that for a few more moments before the pounding in her head began to ease up a bit.

“Look, kid —,“ Rocket began. 

“I’m not a kid.”

"Pfft, course you are. You may not look like one, but you stink of the same hormones and delinquency—" the creature claimed, giving a small sniff in the air for emphasis.

_You really didn’t need to sniff, but whatever I guess._

Most people didn't recognize her as being younger than them. Whether it be because of her height or because of her lack of baby-face, the mix-up had helped her on more than one occasion: if she needed to get in somewhere children weren't allowed, or if she wanted to drink something she probably shouldn't have been drinking it wasn't too hard to get ahold of it. And even in the unlikely event that somebody did realize her age no one ever cared enough to call her on it. It was fine with her. Their indifference meant fewer problems for her to run away from.

Lennux probably could have said something that wouldn't piss off the guy who had a big ass tree traveling with him, but she doesn't have the best track-record with things she could do. She could have said, "you're the first to notice." Did she say that though? Of course not! No, no— what Lennux did was raise an eyebrow at the rodent and say, without thinking, "And you smell like insanity rolled in a pile of A'askavariian crap that was left out in the sun for too long." Did she probably piss him off? Yes. Was she probably gonna get into trouble for it? It was likely. She wasn't all that focused on it though seeing as she had more important matters to worry about than trying (and succeeding) to out-sass a rodent. Such issues included, but were not limited to, the following: keeping her lower stomach from ripping itself out of her body, making sure her skull didn't explode from the mother of a headache she had at the moment, and finding whatever was causing her body to turn on her and ripping that thing to shreds... Pretty standard everyday girl stuff.

The girl waited for another moment before the pain subsided enough that she could focus on those more important things. The humanoid tree currently smiling down at her, for example, was not significant; but Lennux wasn't rude, so she wasn't just going to ignore him.

Her left eyebrow climbed further on her forehead, and her eyes widened a fraction as the over-sized plant continued to stare at her. She went to speak, but it beat her to it.

"I am Groot.”

Lennux gave a short, half-assed smile and said, "I'm Lennux.”

"I am Groot.”

"Yeah, I got that.”

"I am Groot.”

Lennux furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and glanced down at the tree's furry companion. 

Said companion gave a small snort and a short nod before saying, "Yeah, man." He gazed at the girl with a slightly questioning look on his face. "She is kinda tall for a kid.”

"I'm not even that tall—“

"I am Groot?”

"No, — well..." The furry creature started, a slightly scrutinizing look on his face as he stared the girl down. "Maybe. Closest I can come up with is some Krylorian-Korbinite hybrid? That it? Am I right?”

Lennux shook her head a bit and said, "Not even a little bit…,” she said offhandedly. She stared at him contemplatively before asking, ”So what’s your name?” She knew Groot’s and they both knew hers. He might as well finish up the introductions.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Lennux squinted at his reluctance. _It’s just your name, but okay. Whatever. I’ll figure it out myself. Groot. Rat-thing. Groot. And rat-thing. Groot and rat-thing. Why does that ring a bell? Why does..._ The pondering look on her face turned to one of realization. _Oh wow. Groot and rat-thing are Groot and Rocket: the bounty hunters._ She heard their names in passing while she was on Galador a couple of revolutions back, but that was all. From what she had heard, though, she assumed they'd be a bit more imposing? Insane? Scary? She honestly didn’t know what she expected, but a smiley-tree and a snarky rat weren’t it.

Rocket titled his head to the side a bit as he stared the girl down. "Kid, you got a real problem with staring. Do you know that? I don't think you know.”

"I know," she answered before asking, "Is ‘I am Groot?' all he can say?" She nodded her head toward Groot and squinted her eyes in question. It was strange for Lennux, not being able to understand the creature. The translator in her neck was supposed to make sure that never happened. However, it seemed, Groot was a bit too new for the translator.

She blew some air at the curls hanging in her face before flicking them back. She continued to stare expectantly at Rocket, waiting for an answer.

Rocket gave her an exaggerated eye-roll while Groot opened his mouth to speak. However, the smaller creature held up a hand and cut him off before he could. "Nope, not starting that conversation." He shot a pointed look at Lennux. "I promise it's a long one you don't have the time for, kid...but in short, yes that's all he says. Groot's language is all about context, so if you don't know the context, you don't know the language."

"That’s inconvenient,” she said, before pursing her lips. She still had no clue how Rocket could understand anything Groot said from context alone. No, there had to be more to it. They were probably really close.

**Hzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.**

Lennux ignored whatever else Rocket started to say and turned her attention back onto the crowd of people outside the alleyway. She tried to hone in on the buzzing once more. It kept fading in and out, almost like it was moving around, but every few moments it would pop back up, louder than before. She opened her mouth to ask if Rocket could hear it when she instinctively reached up and wrapped her hand around the bark of what she assumed was Groot's wrist. She stared at the creature and raised her eyebrows with a pointed look but found herself facing Groot's innocent, wide-eyed gaze. Lennux released his wrist and said, "Please don't do that.”

The tree gave a small nod; he stared down at her with an understanding expression on his face that made the girl almost uncomfortable. She didn't know how someone could look so...serene all the time. She was a pretty calm person on the regular — at least she thought so —, but there was a difference between being calm and looking calm. According to an old friend, her natural restlessness made her always look like she was going to blow up or she was going to make something else blow up. Occasionally, though, that was the case.

"I am Groot?" he questioned imploringly.

"Yeah, I don't-" she started while giving an unapologetic shrug but was cut off by a certain smart-mouthed rodent.

"He asked if you're from around here," Rocket said, not bothering to look up from the holographic screen he was tinkering with.

Lennux shook her head, and this seemed to catch Rocket's attention slightly, as his tapping paused and his eyes flickered in her direction.

"I am Groot?”

"If you're not from here then where are you from?" Rocket translated, uninterestedly.

"Around.”

Rocket rolled his eyes with a scoff. "Oh, you really narrowed it down."

The girl gave a short shrug. "Wasn't trying to, Rocket.”

The animal's eyes widened and then narrowed in a nanosecond as his body tensed up. He immediately pulled the gun from its holster on his hip and pointed it in Lennux's direction. "I never told you my name.”

Lennux, who was pretty unfazed by the weapon in her face —

_It's the second one in the last twelve hours; it starts to lose its effect after a while, y'know?_

— sighed and said, "You didn't have to. I figured it out from Groot’s name alone—“

“Oh you figured it out?”

“Well there aren’t many Groots in the galaxy, so yeah.” She didn’t see the tree’s smile fade a little at her comment, so she continued. “Only one I’d ever heard of was a giant tree and his bounty-hunter rat partner named Rocket,” she shrugged, “so I just assumed that was you guys.” She could hear the low thrum of energy currents running through the weapon and knew that if fired, the weapon wouldn't be an issue. If anything it might even provide an energy boost to help her get rid of her headache. But it would also cause an even bigger headache when she had to deal with the inevitable fight that would come after (she didn’t think Rocket was the kind of guy to back down quietly). “How about you put the gun down, cause I don't want you to shoot me, and I promise neither of us is gonna like what happens if you do." She stared down her nose at the small animal in front of her with her eyes narrowed in challenge. Sure she had on her gloves, but they were just for channeling the energy, not containing it. Besides, the damned things were already on the fritz, so she didn’t want to try her luck until she could get them fixed.

While she was speaking, the painful tug in her naval returned, putting Lennux in a hurry to end the conversation and get on with finding the source of her pain. It also made her wonder if she had any leftover pain medication in her bag. Even though she was almost positive she had used it a week or two prior after a particularly rough day, she hoped that there still might've been some leftover.

The two had a stare-down before Rocket slowly strapped his gun onto his waist once more.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure," he rolled his eyes. "You're what...maybe twelve in Xandarian years? You ain't that scary. ‘Sides, most you could probably do is get a good lick in with your tail before hauling ass," he raised his eyebrows at her.

”I’m fourteen, and I could throw you over this building without breaking a sweat, but that’s not the point," the girl snarked back.

_What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Just. Stop. Talking…_

"I'd shoot you before you took a step.”

”Okay,” the girl challenged, her eyebrows raised expectantly. _Shut up! Just ‘cause I can take it doesn't mean it won’t hurt; I know that! Self-preservation skills — I have them, I need to use them!_

Lennux watched Rocket regard her carefully. They held eye contact for a few moments, at the end of which Rocket took his finger off the trigger; Lennux released a sigh and hoped the rodent wouldn’t catch it. He heard it but did nothing more than let out a soft scoff before shaking his head. She figured he had bigger and better things to do than argue back-and-forth with her, anyway. "You're not worth wasting a volt on. Go on, get out of here kid," Rocket then turned toward Groot, showing that his interest was no longer on the girl. With a jerk of his head, Rocket began to walk out of the alleyway and into the traffic of Xandar. Groot followed after him, but only after sending Lennux a goodbye wave.

The small smile instantly turned into a grimace when he turned around. Why Lennux had to run her mouth all the time she didn't know. Especially when she had to run it around bounty hunters that smelled like they ate crazy and shit murder.

Those thoughts left her mind, though, when another wave of dizziness rolled through her. Her hand flew up to the side of her head as another surge of something swept through her. This time it was stronger. But whatever it was, it was causing Lennux's body to screw around, and she was so over it. The girl pulled her bag off of her back and unzipped the various sections. Her frustration grew as she came up empty, seeing that yes, she did use the rest of the pain medication a few weeks prior. This wouldn't work; she needed to find this thing, whatever it was, and get rid of it.

With a new resolve, the teen zipped up her bag and walked out of the alleyway. Swinging her bag onto her back again, she stepped into the frenzy that was Xandar during the day. As the girl weaved through various people, she began to take in her surroundings in an attempt to find the center of the crowd. Lennux needed a good vantage point if she was going to try and locate the whatever-it-was; so, when she saw Groot's hulking form bent over the water fountain in the center of the courtyard, she figured that was as good a point as any. Even though she would be out in the open and ripe for the picking by any Novan guard, or that Groot and Rocket attracted more attention than what she needed at the moment, they'd be able to find the orb faster than she could. At least in her current state of pain, annoyance, and overall doneness with the situation. Maybe if she asked nicely, Rocket would send out a pulse to bounce off any energy receptors in the area. Probably not, but there was always a chance. So, she began making her way towards Groot.

Lennux kept her head down as she weaved between people, trying to make her way over to Rocket and Groot without being spotted. After a few seconds of dodging and weaving, she came to a stop between the two. Groot smiled kindly at her and gave a short wave that she returned, before turning back around. Rocket had pulled out a glass screen tablet and was looking through it, and at the people walking around them.

"— a bunch of losers." Lennux couldn't help but smirk as she caught the end of Rocket's sentence. "All of ‘em in a big hurry to get from something stupid to nothing at all." He shook his head. "Pathetic.”

The younger girl began to think on Rocket's words while she looked around at the people walking around her. He wasn't wrong, not in the slightest — at least, not from where she was standing. Xandarians were well-known for how utopian-like their planet was (it wasn't hard to see why). Adults and children alike all boasted sleek, stylish outfits and strange hairstyles as they walked around without a care in the world. Their lavishness didn't come as a surprise, though; it was Xandar after all, and casual wasn't really in their vocabulary, or their wardrobes for that matter.

 _Must be nice,_ she thought to herself while unconsciously fiddling with the metal of her wrist cuffs. Hell, what she wouldn't give to be able to dress like them without drawing unwanted attention. To be able to walk around without a care in the world. To be able to eat without stealing, or have to flee every time she had an incident. What she wouldn't give never to have an episode again. Incidents occurred frequently enough that she knew the authorities' description of them by heart: volatile outbursts of biologically produced energy. Much to Lennux's chagrin, they weren't wrong.

The last time she had an incident, she took down a two-story building in the center of the Galadorian citadel because some drunken idiot got trigger happy and handsy. The girl shook those thoughts away and focused back on the issue at hand. She needed to find what was causing her body to...do whatever it was doing.

Lennux closed her eyes and attempted to filter through all of the noise she was picking up on because she figured then that she'd be able to trace the buzzing to the source. She was so focused that she didn't even hear Rocket begin speaking to her, but she picked up on everything else. Her point-tipped ears flicked back and forth a bit as the sounds around her started rapidly filtering in and out. She could hear a baby crying somewhere to her right, a group of women talking about a new fashion trend to her left, and a couple talking about their dinner plans somewhere behind her; however, she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out where the buzzing was coming from. There was just too much input and interference to sift through.

With a sigh, the girl opened her eyes to chance another look around but glanced down when she heard a sharp snap come from below her waist. "What?”

Rocket was watching her with a narrow-eyed and curious gaze. The rodent had his arms crossed over his chest. "Did you hear anything I just said?”

She stared at him blankly for a moment. "Nope," she said, before turning back around.

He rolled his beady eyes and focused back on the screen in his hands. "I asked what the hell you wanted? Obviously, it is something, ‘else you wouldn't be followin' us around.”

The stripes along the girl's face pinched together as she screwed her face up. "I'm not following you, okay? I'm just trying to look for something.”

"Mhm. Well, I'm sure you ain't gotta look for it right next to me," Rocket rolled his eyes. "Learn some boundaries, kid.”

Lennux's eyebrows shot upwards on her forehead as she stared at him incredulously. "I have. That's why there are like three feet between us." She motioned towards said space and sent him a pointed look.

"Oh yeah, that extra foot makes all the difference in the galaxy-“

”It does, actually.”

"I'm sure. You don't wanna get mouthy with me kid or else—" Rocket didn't get to finish.

"Or else what?" Lennux challenged.

_We just went through this. We JUST went through this. I swear to God, I'm gonna die one of these days, and it's gonna be my fault—_

"I'll set Groot on ya."

_Oh. Never mind then._

Lennux glanced over her shoulder at Groot, who was bent over and drinking from one of the water fountain’s spouts.

 _How? How is he a bounty hunter? How did that happen???_ She turned an unimpressed gaze back onto Rocket. "I'm shaking," she said in a monotone.

Rocket swore a bit before addressing the humanoid tree. "Don't drink fountain water ya idiot," the creature chided. "That's disgusting.”

Groot looked up at Rocket innocently before shrugging, as if to say, "I-didn't-do-anything." Lennux snorted at his attempt to lie.

"Yes, you did! I just saw you do it! Why are you lying?" Rocket asked. He went to speak again, but stopped when rapid beeps started coming from the screen in his hands – paws? "Oh, looks like we got one." He lifted the screen to his face. "Okay, humie-,”

Now that piqued Lennux's curiosity. Humans were usually known to stay on their planet, so to see one on Xandar was surprising.

Pulling her gaze away from the people around her, she stepped a bit closer to Rocket before glancing down at the glass panel in his paws. The screen focused on a man on the upper levels. The teenager glanced up from the screen and zeroed in on his bag; she felt the tug in her stomach grow at the same time as the buzzing in the air began to get a bit louder. She reached for her left wrist and began twisting the silver cuff around it.

He had it. And whatever it was made the air around her thrum with energy.

"There it is," she mumbled. Groot glanced down at the girl and saw the determined look on her face.

"I am Groot?”

Neither Lennux nor Rocket acknowledged the question.

"Let's see how bad someone wants to find ya," Rocket spoke from her side. "Forty-thousand units?! We're gonna be rich!" he laughed happily. The creature grinned while clipping his bounty device back onto his belt before running out of the alleyway. "Come on Groot!" He disappeared around the corner with a parting yell of, "We're gonna bag this one if it kills him!”

Lennux watched Groot step around her, turning to send her a small smile, before continuing onward after his shorter companion once again. His long strides allowed him to catch up to Rocket, who quickly scurried up his arm and onto his shoulder, pulling out what looked like a body bag as he went.

_Well this is gonna be interesting._

The girl turned her attention back to the man on the upper level but found him aiming a weapon at some green woman sprinting through a group of Xandarians that jumped out of her way. In her hand was a round object, and while Lennux didn't know what it was, she could feel the energy radiating off of it in waves.

_There it is._

Light, almost, translucent, purple waves rippled through the air. Lennux could feel them rolling over her skin, but it seemed no one else could. She was surprised that no one else could sense the energy, but then again, no one else was quite like her, so she didn’t think on it for long.

The girl sprinted away from the fountain with a new objective in mind: get the bag and whatever was inside of it. Lennux needed to get the Orb, and she'd prefer if she got to it before Rocket did; the tribrid didn't know the shorter creature very well, but from what she'd gathered he didn't seem the type just to let her take something off his bounty without a fight.

The girl weaved through the crowd of Xandarians while attempting to keep the object – some green chick had taken a silver ball out of the bag – in her sights. The Terran man had caught up with the green woman, and the two were now fighting. On a split-second decision, the girl changed direction and started sprinting toward one of the pillars connected to the platform above her. In an effortless display of strength and speed, Lennux scaled the column, eliciting gasps from those around her.

_...And there goes any chance of staying under the radar. Way to go you._

Most people jumped out of her way when she landed on the platform, but the girl paid them no mind. Instead, she ran behind a red ion pillar and zeroed in on the fight that had broken out a few yards away from her. "Not her! Him! Learn genders, man!" came Rocket's disgruntled and frantic voice.

Rocket was standing on the green woman's shoulders while Groot had begun to wrap his branches around her, holding her in place. All this happened while the Terran started sprinting in Lennux's direction with the silver ball – no, it was an orb – clutched in his hand.

The closer he got, the stronger the energy field around her became. The orb was like a beacon, sending, large, invisible pulses of energy through the air that threatened to pull the girl closer. It seemed that she was the only one who noticed it, though because everyone around her continued to walk around as if nothing was happening.

Lennux was stirred from her musings when she heard a loud cracking sound. Turning her head to the side, she saw that the green woman had managed to break out of Groot's hold. The poor creature stood off to the side with snapped, broken branches hanging off of his body. Rocket was nowhere in sight, and the woman had begun to take a few steps forward before pulling something shiny and silver from her belt.

Lennux could see the steel glinting in the sun and realized it was a knife; she watched the weapon shoot through the air towards the Terran. The child began bouncing on her toes as she watched the blade strike his hand. He hissed and dropped the orb, but kept running for it. Lennux bolted from her hiding spot, reached out, and snatched the Orb before it could roll off of the platform. Somewhere behind her the girl heard a growl of frustration and assumed it was the green woman, but her focus was on the Terran, who was watching her with confusion on his face. The child sent him a small apologetic look before dropping and throwing out her leg, pulling the man's out from under him. The man crashed against the ground and smacked his head against the pavement

”Son of a bitch," he groaned while clutching the side of his head.

Lennux sent the Terran a small apologetic, “sorry,” before turning and beginning to hurry away; her focus was on the Orb, though.

_Oh, this feels kinda freaky._

The metal felt hot and cold all at once, and the thrum of the foreign energy increased ten-fold while a strange tingling sensation began to spread through the gloves and into her hand. It was sending pulses through her body, causing the hair on her arms to stand on end. It felt like it was tugging on every molecule in her body, trying to get them to do something. She didn’t know. What she did know was that she wanted to peek inside at what was causing this. She didn’t know how to describe — 

She twisted her body to the side to avoid whatever was coming at her. A green fist punched through the air where the girl’s head would have been. The red-skinned girl saw a hard look of determination etched onto the green woman's face; Lenny watched with wide eyes as the woman swung her other fist out. The teen blocked it with her left arm before parrying the kick meant for her right knee. She didn't move quick enough to stop the punch flying toward her ribs. A sharp crack sounded, and she gasped as pain exploded in her side. The hybrid stared at the woman with wide eyes as she stumbled haphazardly.

_Holy shit._

The girl’s pause gave the woman an opening to lunge at her. Unbalanced and in pain, Lennux was forced onto her back against the pavement. Tools and various objects poked through the material of her bag and into her back, making her groan in discomfort. While she could feel her rib beginning to slide back into place and reconnect, it was still a good ways from being fully healed, but she could not focus on that for long. She grabbed for the woman's arms in an attempt to restrain her, ignoring the sharp pain radiating from under her left arm. The girl extended her claws and sunk them into the flesh of the green woman's arms. The woman roared angrily and slowed her struggle against the younger girl; drops of green blood trickled under the teen's nails. Lennux then yanked the woman down to her level, ignoring the woman's flesh ripping in her grip, and knocked her head against the woman’s once, twice, before stopping. The green woman went cross-eyed, but the girl didn’t give her a second to collect herself. She pulled her legs up between herself and the woman before kicking out, sending the woman flying somewhere behind her. The teen felt a small swell of satisfaction upon hearing the woman smack against the ground.

_Looks like Ms. Big and Bad ain’t so bad after all._

That feeling of pride was short-lived, however, as green woman rolled to her feet at the same time as Lennux and immediately struck out with her fist. The girl blocked the first blow and the following three but wasn't fast enough to block a blow to the cheek and two punches to the abdomen. She sent a flurry of attacks at the girl.

 _Dodge left cross. Block kick to the abdomen. Block right hook._ Lennux couldn’t find a single opening to strike. The woman was sending too many attacks too quickly, and all she could do was try to avoid them. The woman continued to rain down a barrage of assaults, and the younger girl continued to block, parry, and evade for a few moments until she found an opening. The woman struck out with her fist, but Lennux knocked it to the side before bringing her foot down against the side of the woman’s knee, knocking her off balance. She then reached back, grabbed her backpack, and swung it forward across the woman's face before slamming her foot into the woman's chest. The green woman stumbled back a few feet, obvously a bit winded, giving Lennux some time to plan the next few moments.

_Fuck not making a scene. New plan: kick her ass, get the orb, and boun — Oh come on!_

The woman was back on her feet within seconds and immediately went to strike the girl again; the teen reeled back and narrowly avoided the blow. The woman grunted and faked a swing to the left before spinning and bringing the back of her fist against the girl’s right cheek. Lennux stumbled to the side a few feet and shook her head a bit with a growl. The green woman went to advance on the girl once again but hesitated when she saw the split on Lennux’ cheek begin to stitch itself back together. She stared at the teen with narrowed, suspicion-filled eyes.

Lennux snarled back.

The woman jumped back into action and began delivering punch after punch, but the teen blocked each one. The woman dropped to try and sweep the girl’s legs, but she jumped over them. The woman stood to her feet and went to deliver another blow, but Lennux reached out and grabbed the woman’s fist, stopping it before it reached her. She squeezed hard and felt the bones shift in her grasp before she twisted the arm downwards.

The older woman showed no reaction to the pain before attempting to deliver a kick to the girl’s side. Her ankle got caught in the teen's vice-like grip.

Lennux gave an animalistic growl and pulled the woman forward, before grabbing her by the shoulder and slamming her knee upwards into the woman’s gut three times. She then grabbed the woman by the front of her shirt, flipped her over her shoulder, and slammed her against the pavement. Cracks spiderwebbed out across the ground from the impact.

The woman groaned in pain as the younger girl quickly stood up and backed away, keeping her gaze on the woman in case she jumped back up. Lennux was on-guard at this point; it was apparent that the woman could take a hit and keep on coming.

The teen glanced around at all the spectators who were watching her and the green woman with fear and caution in their gazes.

_There are too many people. They’ve already seen my face, and they’ve probably notified the Corps; I gotta go. I really gotta go._

Lennux rolled her neck a bit, trying to force her body to relax to force down the energy that was welling up in her veins. Same method as usual; only this time it wasn’t as simple as just controlling whatever leftover energy was sitting in her tank. No, this time she had to account for the orb lying a few feet away on the ground; it was practically goading the energy out of her.

_Why did I want this thing again?_

A quick ripple through her body followed by a sharp tug in her naval made the girl stutter in her movements.

_Never mind, I remember._

Lennux, once again on the offensive, reached where the Orb rested on the ground and retrieved it before anyone else had the chance to challenge her. She began running toward the edge of the platform and stepped off into open air. The child fell to the ground and landed smoothly before standing to her feet and sprinting away from the crowds that were quickly beginning to form, all the while keeping her head turned down.

The girl had only made it a few yards when she began to unzip her bag to store the Orb and the unmistakable sound of a blaster being fired above her rang out. She dove forward and rolled over her shoulder, trying to avoid whatever shot at her. The contents of her bag revealed to be a small wrench, clothing, and her most recent book scattered across the pavement. Once she was upright again, Lennux turned her head and stared, with a shocked look, at the spot where she had been standing. Scorch marks spread out along the concrete; smoke rose from the ground in thick curls while the leftover energy dispersed in the air. The remnants of electric impulses spread through the air before her body began soaking them up.

Right as she looked up to see who had fired the shot, Lennux had to jump to the side to avoid two more shots. She barely dodged the first one but caught the second in her chest. She dropped the Orb and clenched her eyes shut as the energy seeped into her body and made her freeze in place rather than throw her off her feet as it should have. The girl felt all of her muscles clench up and spasm at the same time; the energy rushed through her body at a rapid pace, being absorbed and changed and twisted into new power. Lennux could feel every movement of every person around her, and she could practically smell their fear and confusion. The other smell she picked up on, though, was an old leather, body odor, and smoky scent that wafted down from above her.

After what felt like minutes, but in actuality was only a few seconds, Lennux felt the energy well up under her skin. She didn't know where to put it because there wasn't anywhere to put it. In a last-ditch effort, the girl tried pulling the currents into one part of her body but was not able to focus it enough to hold it in. A wave of bluish-greenish energy shot out of Lennux’s left hand — somewhat focused through her forearm brace — and as she threw her arm upwards to the sky, some of it slammed into a small communication stand off to the side and then the corner of a building a few yards away before shooting into the air. The girl watched in defeated silence as the stand was reduced to ash while flames flickered up from the wreckage. One of the booth workers stood off to the side, staring at the smoldering remains and yelling about how her “merchandise is ruined” and how “she is not going to be paying for all of this.”

 _Oh, fuck I’m so sorry_.

Lennux felt a fleeting moment of relief when she saw that no one got hurt — no one that she could see, at least. That relief quickly turned into annoyance. If some Terran hadn't shot her full of about 500 volts, then she wouldn't have to worry about bystanders getting hurt. Even though the girl wasn’t the biggest fan of Xandarians, that didn't mean she wanted them hurt or their stuff ruined. There wasn't any point to it.

She tilted her head upward toward the balcony and found the Terran staring right at her. His eyes were wide, and his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

A slight snarl formed over Lennux’s face as she tried to focus the left-over amplified energy into her right arm and the channeling arm-band that surrounded it.

With a growl, the girl reached down for the Orb and began to head toward the pillar so she could knock his guy on his ass for the second time. But she was stopped.

Why?

Because the universe didn’t like to give her any fucking breaks.

Right as she took her first few steps, the woman decided to bum-rush Lennux and send her sprawling off to the side while the Orb rolled off in another direction. The teenager grunted in pain when her shoulder connected hard with the ground. Her body was already sore from absorbing and ultimately releasing that built up energy all at once, so being tackled —

_It was a damn good tackle._

— not even ten seconds later did nothing to help the fact.

Lennux turned her head to the side and watched the woman pick the discarded Orb off the ground and sprint away. Releasing a sigh, Lennux closed her eyes and laid still for a moment, allowing her body to go through an unnaturally natural healing process.

 _All I wanted was to make the buzzing and the pain stop. That’s all I wanted. I just wanted not to feel like my head was going to blow up, or like my stomach was gonna fall out of my crotch, but nooOOOo. If you try to help yourself, though, you get shot! ...Ugh, I hate Xandar. I really, wholeheartedly hate Xandar. Val was right, nothing good ever happens on this damn planet. Is this payback for ignoring her? I think it is...oh yeah, it definitely is._

Once the pain had subsided long enough for everything to come back into focus, she rolled back onto her stomach and found her bag. Her moveemnts were a bit stiff as she collected all of her things, grumbling about how "the Terran got her book dirty." After it was all picked up, she tried to locate the Orb again. The sounds of struggle came from a few yards away. Lennux turned to see what it was and wasn't even a little surprised by what she saw.

The green woman and the Terran were wrestling on the ground, fighting for the Orb that rested in the woman’s hand. Lennux began to approach slowly from behind while listening intently and waiting for a better opening.

The green woman, with her knee pressed into the human’s neck, hissed, “Fool. You should’ve learned.”

“I don’t learn,” the man rasped while reaching for some sort of device on his belt. “One of my issues.” He shot his hand out and grabbed the Orb before hooking the device to the green woman and pressing something on his leg. The device activated and shot into the air, propelling the woman into a fountain a few yards away from the Terran. When the woman smacked against the wall, Lennux’s eyebrows pinched in slight pity.

_Damn, I felt that in **my** back._

She turned her focus back onto the human and found him standing to his feet. He gave the Orb a small toss before catching it in his hand. There was a lazy smirk on his face that had Lennux itching to knock it out of place.

_Won’t be smiling for long…_

She slung the bag onto her back and went to take a step forward but stopped when Rocket entered her field of view. After all, wherever Rocket was, she figured Groot was probably nearby; she did not feel like dealing with either of them at the moment. Instead, the teen sighed and crossed her arms over her chest with a resigned look on her face; she would much rather sit back and enjoy the show anyway, especially when she saw the knapsack hanging from Groot’s hand as he approached the Terran.

In one fluid motion, Groot snatched the Terran up in the bag and slung it over his shoulder. She stared at the grinning tree with her eyebrows raised high on her forehead in amusement and slight impressment. The creature began walking toward Rocket; she was sure the two were about to bounce and go collect their payment. But, Lennux couldn’t let that happen. Not yet, at least.

_Groot, you seem pretty chill, but I need that Orb._

She approached the tree and stepped into his field of view. "Groot, hey, wait!” she said, attempting to get the tree's attention.

The humanoid slowed to a stop and turned his head to the side. "I am Groot," he spoke while still grinning brightly.

Lennux sent a small smiled back and opened her mouth to speak when Rocket piped up. "Well look who's back. Saw you get your ass kicked," he said.

She glanced down at him. “And I saw you get thrown into a shopping stand,” she retorted.

Rocket narrowed his eyes at the girl. "What do you want?”

"The Orb." Rocket opened his mouth to speak, but Lennux spoke over him. "Look, I just got beat and bum-rushed by some psycho-warrior-chick and then shot because of it —“

"— You look fine to me —," the rat shrugged, but Lennux spoke over him.

"— I just wanna know what it is, Rocket.”

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"Yeah, I don't think so.”

Lennux furrowed her eyebrows at the creature and switched to a new tactic. “Oh, I wasn’t asking permission. I was just letting you know out of courtesy because I'm polite," she said.

Rocket narrowed his eyes at the girl. "First off, if it's on me and Groot's bounty then it belongs to us. Second off, you're — quit smiling ya idiot, you're s'posed to be a professional," he snapped at Groot, his focus jumping to the tree for a moment. He turned back around to continue walking and talking but stopped when he saw the "oh shit" look that Lenny suddenly had on her face. He turned to around and sighed, "You gotta be kidding me.”

The feral child had smelled the woman's annoyance before she saw her.

The woman approached with determination and murder in her eyes and her sword clutched tightly in her hand.

_Oh, she looks pissed._

Lennux began taking steps back when the woman pushed Rocket out of the way and started approaching her. The woman immediately jabbed at her with her blade, prompting the younger girl to lean to the left to avoid being run through; then she ducked to the right as the woman lunged forward again. The girl jumped backward as the woman swung low at her stomach and then her head. The teen instinctively ducked and rolled out of the way, into a kneeling position, but scrambled backward as the woman continued to slash at her. She would have tried to usE her bag as a shield, but the woman was coming at her so fast that she couldn't grab it without getting sliced. Lennux didn't stop moving until the gleaming weapon came to aim a bit too close for comfort at her throat.

The woman stared at the girl. She had an unyieldingly fierce look in her eyes. The two locked gazes for a moment, before the woman said, in a low voice, "If you wish to keep your life, you won’t get up.”

Lennux nodded her head.

The green-skinned warrior (Lennux assumed she was a warrior of some sort. Who had moves like that without being trained? No one) turned on her heel and continued toward Groot with her sword poised to strike.

 _Well, Groot's dead,_ came the teen's immediate thought.

Groot had dropped the sack and started taking a few steps back when the warrior started swinging.

She hacked at Groot's limbs without hesitation, her eyes fierce as she grunted with every swing of her sword.

Lennux watched with wide, slightly sympathetic eyes as wood splinters and even full limbs began flying through the air. With two powerful strikes of her sword, the green-skinned woman managed to chop off both of Groot's arms before delivering a final blow to his stomach.

Warrior-woman sheathed her weapon before making her way over to the sack that held the Terran. Lennux followed her movements while slowly standing to her feet, rolling her neck a bit as she began picking up on the low thrum of energy. This one was different than the Orb, although it came from the same general direction; this one was weaker and had an underlying high-pitch squeal to it. Lenny's eyebrows raised high on her forehead as she realized what was about to happen. She watched in anticipation as the woman crouched down in front of the bag and reached for the opening.

_Hey, ever heard the joke about the electrocuted vegetable…?_

The warrior-woman opened the sack only to receive what Lennux guessed was about 200 volts of electricity straight to the face. A small smirk covered the girl's face as the woman fell back onto the ground, writhing in pain.

_Well I heard they **fried** laughing! Hahahahaha... Ugh, I'm the worst…_

While Lenny was caught up in thinking about her "worstness," the green-skinned woman continued to convulse for a few moments before going still.

The striped teen turned her attention onto the Terran who was attempting to run off while stumbling out of the grey bag.

"There he goes...again," Lennux said to no one in particular as she huffed her eyes in exasperation. She had just gotten her ass handed to her for trying to grab the Orb in the first place. She didn't want to do it all over. And yet, she still found herself walking toward the retreating Terran.

"I wouldn't worry too much, kid," spoke Rocket; he stood at her right with an unbothered — and almost eager — look on his face. Lenny looked down and watched him unstrap the large gun that rested on his back. Her eyebrows raised on her forehead, a bit.

 _Would've thought he'd use it after he got launched into a shopping stand but guess not,_ Lennux thought.

Rocket aimed at the retreating man and smirked to himself before saying, "I live for the simple things." His gun began to expand to its full size as he placed it in front of his eye.

 _Oh — Oh yes. Oh. Yes._ The teen’s eyes widened a bit, and her mouth dropped open slightly. Her lips spread into an open-mouthed smile as she took a few steps back and raised her hands in an 'after you,' gesture.

"Like how much this is gonna hurt." Rocket pulled the trigger on his weapon, unloading a ball of electricity that hit the Terran square in the back. Lennux‘s eyebrows raised on her forehead, and she huffed out a slight laugh as the man wriggled around for a moment.

"Yeah, writhe little man," Rocket said.

The Terran let out a few pained shouts before falling to the ground, unconscious.

Sparing him a glance, Lennux spoke to Rocket in a slightly judgmental, yet amused tone, "You're kinda sick. D'you know that? I don't think you know that.”

The experiment merely smiled at her reusing of his words. "I know," he claimed with a nod.

She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off when pitiful sounding whimpers and moans that came from behind her. Lenny turned her head to the side and saw Groot kicking lightly at his chopped off appendage with a sad look on his face.

The girl stared down at the arm before fixing Groot with an awkward, trying-to-be-understanding-and-failing, look. "That's unfortunate. Come on big guy; you'll be—“

"It'll grow back ya daft idiot, quit your whining," Rocket scoffed.

"Give him a break, he just had his arms cut off." Right as she finished speaking, Lennux felt her body go stiff as she floated off the ground. Four yellow beams were holding her, along with Rocket and Groot, in place between four Novan ships that surrounded them. A groan escaped the girl's lips as her eyes slid shut in aggravation.

_This day just keeps gettin' better and better._

"Subject 89P13," came the voice of a Novan officer. "Drop your weapon," he commanded.

"Ah crap," Rocket muttered under his breath, allowing his weapon to slip out of his paws and hit the ground. Lennux shook her head and glanced to the left, finding an unconscious Gamora floating in a yellow force field as well.

"By the authority of the Nova Corp, you are under arrest for civil disturbance and the destruction of property.”

 _Oh okay, so that's not that bad. Unless he was only talking to Rocket. Who am I kidding? I'm fucked,_ she thought with a sigh.

"Hey, if it isn't Star-Prince!" came the jovial shout of a Novan officer. Craning her head to the side as best as she could in the firm hold of the force field, Lennux saw the Terran getting handcuffed; the guy looked pissed. She rolled her eyes at the man's retreating figure.

_Oh whatever. If anyone has the right to be pissed, it's me (and probably Groot too)._

The girl looked around and began thinking back on her current predicament and how to get out of it.

The ships loomed closer, but she continued to come up blank.

"Son of a bitch…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so Lennux has met the guardians, (minus Drax), and she's already over all of it. My girl is not down for being arrested. We love a tired, soon-to-be-inarcerated teen.


	4. He's Hooked on a Feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own anyone or anything that you might recognize as part of the Marvel/MCU universe(s). I only own Lennux and any other original characters and ideas.

Location: Novan Headquarters, M31V  
J00442326 - 412708  
Date: Middle of Xandar’s 3006th  
Revolution around Sun #281

Lennux stared aimlessly at the grey walls that surrounded her; to anyone watching the child looked almost bored, although she was anything but. Throughout the ride to the Nova headquarters, the girl had an internal freak-out coupled with some well-deserved, but light, self-berating. For the time being, she was pretty calm, if a little bored. Upon arriving, the teen had resigned herself to focus on the small, albeit sturdy and inescapable room she was put in. To her left was the tall, triple-bolted metal door she had entered from. A guard stood next to the door, watching the girl to ensure she didn’t try to escape. The teen almost scoffed at how unnecessary their presence was. The officers had brought her to the heart of Novan operations, so trying to break out would be useless and a waste of energy. She was better off just keeping her head down and staying quiet. 

While staying quiet had been easy, keeping still was a challenge that she ultimately failed. The girl had started fidgeting and toying with the thick metal bracers on her forearms after being arrested. It was at least an hour later, and she had moved from toying with the cuffs to shifting back and forth on her feet, swaying side to side, and even bobbing her head. Her gaze moved around the room, never staying on one spot for too long before moving somewhere else. Similarly, her thoughts were all over the place. She kept coming back to one question, though. What were they going to do with her? There was only one viable option for someone with her track record: the Kyln. Intergalactic imprisonment may seem a little extreme to some since she was a child, but according to the Novas, if you’re old enough to commit a crime, you’re old enough to do the time. However, it seems that the “I-don't-give-a-fuck-who-you-are-you’re-done” attitude is only reserved for smaller criminals as shown by their lack of action regarding the threats that a certain Big Blue Baddie had been making to their planet as of late. 

Ooh, reason seventeen on a long list of why I should never come to Xandar: they have too much shit going on, like extremists that want to annihilate them. I do not need that kind of added stress in my life.

Lennux unknowingly began tapping her foot while rolling her shoulders a bit. She stared at the window in front of her. There were people on the other side, most likely Nova officers. She could hear two of them talking about her. 

“Kid’s name is Subject 9-T72—.” He either didn’t hear, or he purposefully ignored the muffled huff-growl noise that snuck out of the teen’s mouth. “— but she goes by Lennux. T72 is the result of a bioelectric induction experiment performed on an upper life-form hybrid cross of an Axi-Tun and a mutated Arcturan. She’s wanted for one count of aggravated assault, five — now six — counts of combined arson and destruction of property, and evading arrest twice.”

The girl visibly tensed when the officer read off the list of felonies. She shifted on her feet and looked down to the floor. Instead of listening to whatever the men had left to say, the girl began to focus on her list of felonies.

Six counts of arson and destruction of property. _Good job_ , she thought. She could feel the guilt and anger begin to settle on her shoulders. Not anger at the guards, though, anger at herself. _It's not like I meant to do it._

And this was true. She never purposefully tried to lose control. Who would? Every once in a while it happened for whatever reason, and there were a lot of reasons. Maybe she’d accidentally gotten too close to an open wire and lit up before she could stop it. One time she’d accidentally gotten shot (because that happens) and couldn’t contain the energy. Other times Lennux would feel it coming and be able to get away from people. Most of the time it was just a stroke of bad luck coupled with unpreparedness and a brief lack of control. Because that was all it took - one moment for her to take out a wall or something.

These control and energy-related issues had been biting her in the ass even before she was on her own, though. Back on Sakaar, when Lennux was younger and less adept at controlling her powers in any way, she had gotten into trouble more times than she would ever admit. She also got a sweet pair of channeling braces out of it, but she's here to focus on the bad stuff. Like when she reduced a store to cinders after getting into a heated fight with some guys trying to take her stuff. However harmful her abilities were, they were also the only reason why she was able to hold her own in a fight sometimes. They certainly came in handy when Val took her to the arena training rooms for the first time. 

The girl gave a small half grin, half grimace at the memory. That room had been the only place she’d ever willingly gotten her ass handed to her. And it was handed to her many times, specifically by one Beta Ray Bill —

_AKA the Champion of the Arena, AKA the Kicker of Asses, AKA My Hero #2_

A few years ago she would spend every night watching that guy beat the shit out of people. From her spot on Val’s ship, she could see everything perfectly, and much like the arena crowd, she was never disappointed. Aside from Val, for obvious reasons, Bill was one of the most incredible fighters she ever had the pleasure of knowing. In every fight, no matter who it was against or what his odds were, he demolished every opponent he had. It was like fighting was as easy as breathing for him. The first time she ever watched one of his matches, he got thrown through a wall before jumping out and bashing his opponent’s head in. Another time some poor idiot tried to stab the fighter with a sword, and the weapon broke against Bill’s skin. _IT BROKE_. The guy was a beast in every way possible, and everyone knew it. So when he offered to spar with her while Val spoke with the Grandmaster, she jumped at the opportunity. In a word, the fight was incredible. She got her ass kicked, but it was still incredible. Especially that part where she might've accidentally, but played it off as non-accidentally, charged up and blasted him through a weights rack. Oh yes, she had been in a good mood for the rest of the week.

Everyone knew Bill's face, knew his name. He couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized, Lennux was sure. Attention followed him, which was something the girl could somewhat relate to thanks to her, uh, "electric" presence. Unlike Bill, though, she didn't so much enjoy the attention as she did loathe it entirely. So she got used to running and hiding. A lot.

Sadly, running and hiding were nothing new for Lennux. She was used to her powers using her rather than the other way around and dealing with all of the repercussions that followed. At least, that was how things were until a particular incident involving a food stand in the middle of a town forced some changes. At that point, her then “roommate," for lack of a better term, decided she’d had enough and got specially augmented cuffs made for the girl to make her abilities more manageable and less volatile. Recently, though, one of the cuffs had short-circuited while Lennux on Moldur and she hadn’t found the time to fix it herself. She probably should’ve repaired them while on the cargo ship, but that hadn’t happened and she ended up destroying a fart because of it.

Shaking those thoughts from her mind, she tuned into the conversation happening on the other side of the glass. 

“—I still don’t understand why it was so difficult to apprehend a child.” 

_Maybe you guys should step up your training program? Just a thought._ The teen tucked her lips into her mouth to keep her chuckles at bay and trained her gaze on the floor to hide the small smile threatening to break out on her face.

“...Can she hear us?” 

“Yes sir.” 

Her smile widened. 

“…Bring in the next one.” 

There was no more talking after that. Lennux stood in the center of the room for a couple more seconds before the door to her left slid open, and another armored guard stepped into the room. She immediately tensed at the equipment in the guard’s hands. The large, metal, clamp-like braces he was holding were similar to her own, but with a few minor differences. Whereas her arm cuffs were sleek and silver outside and in, these cuffs were a dark grey color on the outside; on the inside, there were small barbs of metal spiking out toward the middle.

_Um, wait a minute? This isn’t- oh no. Please no Absolutely not._

“Hands out,” the guard barked.

She pursed her dark lips and narrowed her eyes slightly. “Y’know the word please can get you pretty far in life.”

The creature simply snorted and said, “I don’t think I’ll be taking any lessons in etiquette from a criminal.” Condescension colored his words. “Hands out, now.”

She rolled her eyes and brought her hands out in front of her. The teen had half a mind to knock the guy on his ass with whatever energy she had stored away, but she knew that wouldn’t get her anywhere. Especially not standing in the middle of a Xandarian policing base.

“Hold still.”

The guard next to the door stepped forward and cautiously reached out for her forearms before unclamping the teen's arm cuffs.

The child could feel the telltale prickle along her skin as her powers surfaced with the absence of the braces. Before her eyes could even change a shade, though, the new arm-bands locked into place around her forearms. Her ears flicked in time with every lock as they slid and clicked into place. The teen gritted her teeth and screwed up her face as the metal spikes dug into her skin. The dampeners began to take effect, preventing the child from using her powers by sucking all the energy out of and depositing it into what she assumed were cartilages within the cuffs. A few more clicks sounded before the metal bands locked into place around her arms. The guard then pulled out a pair of handcuffs hanging from his pants and clamped them around Lennux's wrists.

She clenched her jaw and sucked in a sharp breath through her nose before looking back up to face the guards. The one that cuffed the girl stared unabashedly at her with a judgmental look in his eyes. His lip was curled back in disgust, and he had his arms crossed over his broad chest. 

“Let’s go.” Lennux noticed that the other guard’s voice — the one that had been standing in the corner — sounded how he looked: nasally and annoying. Refusing to break eye contact first, the girl stared the guard down. He stared down his wide, flat nose at her (which was pretty hard to do since she was about half a head taller than him) with a look of superiority that only made his face more tempting to punch. 

The girl was nudged forward when the cold metal of a gun jabbed her in the side. The nasal-sounding guard walked in front of her while the other stood at her back. She could feel his eyes burrowing holes into her head as she walked. While she kept a bit of a lazy swagger to her walk, her fingers twiddled in front of her. Every movement brought a slight sting of pain whenever her flesh pulled against the spikes.

One of the younger looking Novan guards stared at her warily as she passed him. His finger wavered on the trigger of his weapon, and he stared at her through narrowed eyes.

On a whim, the girl flattened her ears back against her head and bared her teeth in the guard’s direction. She growled and allowed her eyes to flash at him while ignoring the sudden dip in energy as her bracelets lit up and forced her abilities into submission. Regardless of the bracelets, though, her fun had the intended effect as she watched the guard jerk back a bit and immediately reach for his weapon with a startled look on his face. Lennux could hear the guard behind her snort at the poor excuse of a soldier before he jutted the tip of his gun against her back. They continued walking.

She was led through few more hallways before the guard ahead of her stopped in front of a large metal door. His fingers danced across a sleek glass keypad on the wall before the door slid up with a creak. As Lennux stepped through the doorway, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead when she caught sight of what waited on the other side of the door.

Ships of all sizes and types were parked in rows within the transport bay. The largest looked like a Nova fleet attack vessel while the smallest was probably a standard Novan cruiser for patrolling. She paid those no mind, though. Instead, she focused on the large transport ship pulled up to the edge of the tarmac platform and the three figures standing in a line in front of it. Each had their hands bound in handcuffs. There were five guards decked out in officers uniforms standing on either side of the group, their faces mistrusting and eyes peeled for anything unusual.

Groot was the first to look in the direction of the approaching trio. Rocket and Gamora soon turned to stare as Lennux got closer.

Rocket greeted her first, saying, “Look who decided to join the party,” with a mocking smile. The girl just rolled her eyes and turned her attention onto Groot who was smiling kindly at her.

She gave him a small nod in return. “Hey big man,” she greeted. Next, she turned her gaze onto the green-skinned woman who was already staring at her with one dark eyebrow raised high on her forehead.

The woman‘s gaze was locked on Lennux’s denser cuffs. She had an appraising look on her face as she stared. When she caught Lennux’s uncomfortable and wary gaze, the two were locked in a staring contest that neither was willing to break. It wasn’t until Lenny was nudged forward by the guard behind her that the teen noticed she had stopped walking. Turning her head forward, she took a few more steps until she stood in between Rocket and Groot.

“Hey kid.” She tilted her head down toward Rocket, giving him her attention. “What’s with the heavy-duty cuffs?” he questioned, staring questioningly at her binds.

_Did he not see the five-second light show I put on earlier?_

She regarded the smaller creature for a moment before shrugging and saying, “They don’t think they can handle me without ‘em.” Lennux gave Rocket a little smirk and left it at that before bringing her gaze back up to the front.

“Again with these detailed responses. I appreciate it,” he rolled his eyes, “thanks,” Rocket spoke sarcastically.

Lennux gave a small smile before the dull thud of approaching footsteps caught her attention. She turned her head toward the bay door and listened as the steps got closer with each passing moment. About a minute later the door slid open to reveal the Terran, handcuffed and being escorted onto the platform by a guard.

“Well ain’t this a lovely reunion.” The sarcastic tone to the Terran’s voice was not lost on anyone. Although, Groot did smile slightly at the man. Lennux ignores the comment and turned back to face front.

The Terran man was placed in between Rocket and Lennux.

“Alright ladies,” barked one of the guards. Lennux assumes he was in charge. “Load ‘em up and get a move on. I got better things to do than deal with these idiots lot all day.”

_Like what? Sit in a corner until you’re given another order?_

The girl smiled faintly at the thought as she boarded the large transport ship set for the Kyln.

————————————————————-

Location: The Kyln, M30H 119919142-0185112

Date: Middle of Xandar’s 3006th Revolution around Sun #281

 _This is like a death march. Hold on- that’s too dramatic. No, this is more like a well-paced, yet lumbering, lurch of a few of the finest assholes this side of the Galaxy has to offer. Oh, and Groot’s here too,_ she thought.

The corridor seemed to stretch on forever, and the various pipes and wires running along the rusted metals walls and the ceiling did nothing but emphasize that. The entire compound reeked of sweat, death, and criminalist activities. Oh yeah, she was going to die there, and all because she couldn’t just leave things alone. No, she had to be an idiot and seek out the trouble.

“I guess most the Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws—“

_Why is he still talking..?_

Lennux bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying something she was sure she’d regret. Rocket had talked throughout the ride to the Kyln, and it seemed that he wasn’t letting up anytime soon. While his quips were funny in the beginning, it had become increasingly more annoying as the ride went on. She was positive that the transport guards would have sedated him if they hadn’t arrived at the Kyln when they did. Thankfully the group had been handed off to a new set of Nova guards before anyone could do anything drastic, not that Lennux would blame them if they did.

“But these ones here, they’re corrupt and cruel—“

_Alright he’s got a point._

“But hey, it’s not my problem,” Rocket laughed. “I ain’t gonna be here long. I’ve escaped twenty-two prisons; this one’s no different.”

Lennux cracked a small smile at that. Twenty-two escapes. That was impressive. But she gave it second place in terms of criminal-slickness and awesomeness. The only reason he wasn’t first place was that he was dumb enough to get caught twenty-two times. Who took first place? Who’s to say? The girl wanted to say it was herself, but she knew she would be lying to herself. But almost every other person in the galaxy did it too, though, so that made it okay. Anyways, she’d been caught tons of times before, but that didn’t matter because she’d never made it into an actual jail. Something always happened, and somehow she would get off the hook. Honestly it was probably the only thing she could always count on — except for this one time, apparently.

For whatever reason, whoever was looking out for me decided I am on my own this time. That’s fine if only they would have had the common fucking courtesy to tell me before I went off and took part in a five-way courtyard brawl on the Nova Corps front door.

She needed to start listening to her head more when it told her not to do something. That was generally how people stayed out of prison, right? Yeah. That was right. She’ll need to start doing that.

A realization dawned on the teen just then; she actually got _caught_ caught this time. It had never happened to her before. Up until this point, she’d been blissfully ignoring the inevitable and just moving around, but now, here she is marching down the halls of the biggest intergalactic prison in the galaxy, unable to ignore that she fucked up. The teen let her eyes slide shut in resignation as she marched, accepting the fact that she was about to be stuffed into some cell with a bunch of smelly, low-life criminals that weren’t smart enough to not get caught. Like herself. Oh god, she could practically feel Val’s glare of exasperation. How could she be so careless? Why didn’t she leave when she had the chance instead of fighting the cucumber a few steps ahead of her? She knew exactly why and it was because she was too curious. She was too curious, and it had gotten her ass in trouble more than once. Granted it was never that bad, but it had been bad enough that she knew when to ignore that itch of curiosity. And yet she never did because she was a teenager that liked to say, _fuck the rules, I do what I want,_ and proceed with her dipshit-adjacent shenanigans.

Oh yeah, she could hear her old friend calling her a dumbass from Sakaar.

“You’re lucky the kid and the broad showed up, ‘cause otherwise me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now. —“

_And I would have the metal ball._

“— And you’d be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those ravagers.”

“I’ve had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years—“

“But you’re such a stand-up guy..,” the girl muttered.

Quill turned around to give her an unimpressed look.

She stared innocently back at him.

The Terran continued speaking to her. “I'm not in the mood to be sassed by some wannabe Thundercat—“

Lennux’ face screwed up in confusion at the word. _What is a Thundercat?_

"My name’s Lennux, Star-Boy. Not 'Thundercat.'”

“ _Star-Lord_.”

The teen fixed the older man with an unimpressed and slightly taunting gaze before saying, “Those ass-beatings you got like an hour ago say otherwise.” 

Star-Lord clenched his jaw in annoyance before turning his head forward once again. “As I was saying,” he paused, “I wasn’t about to get taken down by some tree and a talking raccoon.”

“Hold!” one of the guard’s said. The teen’s eyebrows furrowed as she came to a stop along with the others around her.

_Raccoon? Thundercat? What the hell do they have running around on Terra? What is a raccoon? A rodent, maybe? It must be, or else he wouldn’t have called Rocket that. Or maybe he was just a jerk— yeah that seems right._

Rocket must have had the same question because he then asked, “What’s a raccoon?”

“ _What’s a raccoon?_ It’s what you are, stupid,” was the Terran’s quick reply.

“Ain’t no thing like me, except me!”

Lennux gave a slight nod in agreement. Things like herself — and Rocket, she supposed — were made to be unique, so there was never any reason to believe that they weren’t (except for once a long time ago but that was then, things didn’t work out, and she was still a solo species). At least, she was pretty sure that was the truth. It was the scientists’ objective, at least. Maybe. Probably. Okay, she wasn’t sure at all.

_Oh well._

It was quiet for a few seconds. The only sounds came from the thumping of the group's feet against the floor as they walked. Lennux didn’t comment on the silence because she knew it wouldn’t last forever. But just maybe...

“So,” Star-Lord began.

Lennux rolled her eyes. _Nope. Nevermind. Don’t know why I thought they could be quiet._

“This orb has a real shiny, blue suitcase, ‘Ark of the Covenant,’ ‘Maltese Falcon’ sort of vibe. What is it?”

The teen’s ears perked up a bit, and she listened attentively while the Terran began to question the woman. This, she was interested in. Yeah, she knew the 'Orb' was an energy source of some type, or at least held an energy source, but that was about it. She wanted to know what kind. Where did it come from because she’s never felt anything like it before? Why did Gamora want it so badly? Was it valuable? Why did the Terran, who also had no clue about what it was, have it?

“I am Groot.”

Lennux furrowed her eyebrows at Groot’s out-of-nowhere response, her gaze still trained forward as she waited for the green-skinned woman to speak.

“So what? What‘s the Orb?” probed Star-Lord.

“I have no words for an honor-less thief.”

“Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac,” Rocket said. The woman faltered in her steps as she turned to stare at Rocket with something akin to suspicion and disbelief before turning back around. Rather than answer him, the woman —

_Genocidal maniac, apparently,_

— lowered her head and stared at the floor as she walked. “Yeah, I know who you are,” Rocket snarked. “Anyone who’s anyone knows who you are.”

Guess I’m no one, then. But I already knew that. Ha-ha-ha! Laugh to cover up deep-seated insecurities, Lennux. 

“Yeah we know who you are,” said the Terran man. He turned his head slightly back toward Lennux and quietly asked, “Who is she?”

The teen shrugged and said, “Lackey of a genocidal maniac?” The response sounded more like a question than an answer.

Star-Lord nodded before Groot spoke up, “I am Groot.”

The man rolled his eyes. “Yeah — you said that.”

Assassin-lady chose that time to speak up, this time in her defense. “I wasn’t retrieving the Orb for Ronan. I was betraying him.”

“Ooh twist,” Lennux murmured.

“I had an agreement to sell it to a third party,” the woman said. The door in front of the line opened with a loud clanking noise and the group was led down another corridor once again.

“I am Groot.”

Lennux could practically see the Terran rolling his eyes, even from her spot behind him. “Well, that’s just as fascinating as the first 89 times you told me that,” he snarked. “What is _wrong_ with Giving Tree here?”

“Well, he don’t know talking good like me and you. His vocabulistics is limited to “I” and “am” and “Groot.” Exclusively in that order,” Rocket said.

Lennux smiled over her shoulder at Groot. At first, it was a bit annoying, and it was still kind of annoying then, but Rocket was right: it was all about context. Did she know what he was saying exactly? More often than not, no. Did she get the gist of what he meant at all? Not really, but maybe once or twice so far, so that had to count for something. It was one of those takes-time things, so she wasn’t too pressed about it.

“I tell you what, that’s gonna wear real thin, real fast,” said the Terran.

“Chill out Star-Prince,” Lennux said. “It’s not that bad; just look for context.”

The Terran turned his head back and asked, “Does that actually work?”

Lenny smiled a bit and shrugged, “Not so far, but I’ll tell when it does.” Lennux's ears flicked a bit as muffled words began to float down the hallway; she ignored them.

**I can’t stop this feeling (chaka ooga ooga ooga chaka)...deep inside of me (ooga chaka ooga ooga ooga chaka)...**

The Terran rolled his eyes and turned back around saying, “You do that—" before cutting off his sentence and coming to an abrupt stop. “Hey!” His head had snapped in the direction of a blue-skinned guard, fiddling with some small plastic device. There were wires connected to it leading off to a piece of equipment with round ends. What caught the girl's attention was the melody coming from the device. She was now close enough she could properly hear the words, but so could the Terran, and it seemed to anger him.

He had stopped moving, forcing everyone else to halt as well. His gaze remained fixated on the device in the guard's hands. The Terran told the guard to, “Put that away,” but the other man just placed part of the device over his ears.

If the Terran had hackles, Lennux was positive they would have raised at the blatant disrespect the guard showed. The piece of tech was important to the Terran, but why? All Lennux could see was a piece of plastic with noise coming out of it. While it was playing an interesting melody, it didn’t seem to be anything too special. The teen gained even more interest when the Terran hissed, “You son of a— ” and stepped into the small room with the guard right as the door closed.

**Girl, you just don’t realize, what you do to me...**

“Listen to me you big blue bastard!” the Terran yelled. “Take those headphones off — that’s mine! Those belong in impound—!”

The guard placed the headphones around his neck before reaching for what turned out to be an electrified baton. The Terran continued to yell belongs the man advanced on him. “That TAPE! AND THAT PLAYER IS MINE—!”

**When you hold me...**

The guard roared in anger before jabbing his weapon into the Terran’s chest, immediately bringing the man to his knees. Electricity danced across the human’s chest and rippled across his body.

Lennux raised an eyebrow as the Terran continued to talk, even after the guard removed his baton from the man’s chest.

**In your arms so tight...**

“Hooked On A Feeling, Blue Swede, 1973!” the Terran yelled with a pained breath.

**You let me know, everything’s all right...**

“That song belongs to me!”

The guard lunged forward once more with a yell and jutted his baton into the Terran’s side. Lennux screwed up her face into a wince as she watched the Terran crash against the floor and began convulsing. The guard went at him with the baton once again. _Shoulda stayed quiet, man..._

**IIIIIiiiIIIIiiiiIIII’M, HOOKED ON A FEELING!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I'd like to apologize for not posting in almost a month. Life just got really crazy and really stressful, but that isn't an excuse. I plan on trying to post every two-three weeks from now on so...we'll see how that goes. I know you guys probably don't care, but I felt like I needed to say something. Also, who saw the new ENDGAME trailer???? I. Am. Shooketh. My wig has been snatched, and my soul is not prepared for April 26th. How about ya'll?

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So, this lovely story is the brainchild of a quiet history class, the last day of school before winter break, and complete boredom. I wrote it about two years ago, and I've just now gotten the courage to post it (it's my very first time posting anything). I hope someone out there likes it. If you have any comments, please share. I love feedback :)


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